jHE  ]V\!N1STRY 

OF 

[HE    Sunday_School 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

Presented  by 


BV  1520  .P36 

1902 

Pattison,  T. 

Harwood  1838- 

1904. 

The  ministry 

of  the  Sunday 

School 

5  of' 


<£<>Cf4*- 


THE 
MINISTRY  OF  THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


The  Works  of  Dr.  Pattison 

The  History  of  the  English  Bible 

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The  Bible  in  the  Twentieth  Century 

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T 


HE  MINISTRY  OF  THE 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL  * 


BY      / 

T.  HARWOOD  PATTISON 

Trofessor  in  Rochester  Theological  Seminary 


When  men  do  anything  for  God,  the  very  least  thing,  they  never 
know  where  it  will  end,  nor  what  amount  of  work  it  will  do  for 
him.  Love's  secret,  therefore,  is  to  be  always  doing  things  for 
God,  and  not  to  mind  because  they  are  such  very  little  ones. 

— Frederick  William  Faber 


PHILADELPHIA 

Bmetlcan  Baptist  publication  Society 

1902 


Copyright  1902  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society 


Published  April,  1902 


jfrom  tbe  Society's  own  {press 


Go  tbe  3Facult£  ano  Students 

OF 

IResent's  fcarfc  College 

LONDON 
AND  OF 

Cbe  THartfoto  Cbeologtcal  Seminars 

HARTFORD,  CONN. 


PREFACE 


This  book  has  grown  out  of  the  "  Ridley  Lec- 
tures "  on  "  The  Minister  in  Relation  to  Children 
and  Sunday-schools,"  delivered  at  Regent's  Park 
College,  London,  in  the  summer  of  1900.  The 
same  course  was  given  before  the  students  of  the 
Hartford  Theological  Seminary,  Hartford,  Conn., 
and  single  lectures  in  the  series  have  been  used 
elsewhere. 

In  preparing  them  for  the  press  I  have  widened 
the  original  scope  by  adding  the  lectures  which 
deal  with  the  origin,  progress,  and  future  of  the 
modern  Sunday-school.  The  literary  form  in 
which  they  were  originally  cast  when  prepared 
for  delivery  as  lectures  has  been  changed  some- 
what, the  better  to  appeal  to  the  constituency  of 
readers  now  addressed ;  but  I  have  not  materially 
altered  the  aim  to  which  I  was  committed  by  the 
Ridley  foundation,  namely,  to  deal  mainly  with  the 
minister  in  his  relation  to  the  young  people  of  his 
congregation.  The  importance  of  this  aspect  of 
Sunday-school  work,  and  the  slight  attention  which 
it  has  so  far  received,  seem  to  me  to  justify  this  dis- 
tinct and  definite  purpose  in  the  book,  even  though 


Vlll  PREFACE 

it  now  addresses  itself  to  a  wider  and  more  varied  au- 
dience than  that  for  which  it  was  originally  intended. 

I  wish  to  express  my  grateful  appreciation  of 
the  help  which  I  have  received  in  the  preparation 
of  this  volume  from  Dr.  H.  Clay  Trumbull,  of 
Philadelphia,  and  his  son,  Mr.  C.  G.  Trumbull ;  Dr. 
C.  R.  Blackall,  editor  of  periodicals  of  the  Ameri- 
can Baptist  Publication  Society;  and  Rev.  Carey 
Bonner,  general  secretary  of  the  Sunday-school 
Union  of  London. 

The  literature  of  the  Sunday-school  has  now  be- 
come very  large,  and  the  marginal  references  in 
this  volume  will  show  how  much  I  have  been  in- 
debted to  many  writers.  Let  me  make  special 
mention  of  the  works  on  Robert  Raikes,  by  J. 
Henry  Harris ;  W.  H.  Watson's  "  History  and 
Work  of  the  Sunday-school  Union  "  ;  and  Dr.  H. 
Clay  Trumbull's  admirable  Yale  lectures  on  the 
Sunday-school ;  the  report  of  the  World's  Sunday- 
school  Convention,  held  in  London,  in  1889,  with 
much  statistical  literature  of  the  same  kind  and  of 
later  date  ;  and  also  of  Dr.  S.  L.  Gulick's  excel- 
lent summaries  in  "  The  Growth  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God."  Many  valuable  suggestions  of  a  prac- 
tical nature  will  be  found  in  Dr.  Edward  Judson's 
little  book  on  "  The  Institutional  Church,"  and  in 
the  "Handbook  on  Sunday-school  Work,"  by  Rev. 
L.  E.  Peters. 

January  i,  1902.  i  •    -H..    P. 


CONTENTS 


i 

The  Bible  and  the  Child i 

II 
The  Sunday-school  in  the  Eighteenth   Century    47 

III 
The  Sunday-school  in  the   Nineteenth  Century     75 

IV 
The    Minister    and   the  Young   People   of  the 
Congregation 105 

V 
The  Minister  and  the  Sunday-school 149 

VI 

The  Minister  in  the  Sunday-school 185 

VII 
The  Sunday-school  and  the  Twentieth  Century    229 


THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  CHILD 


The  authority  of  the  Bible  the  first  consideration.  The 
Old  Testament  :  Patriarchal  times  ;  the  child  in  the  larger 
family  of  Israel.  The  New  Testament  :  Jesus  now  the 
prominent  figure.  Subsequent  Ages  :  Growth  of  priestly 
assumption  ;  the  Reformation.  The  early  days  of  the 
Sunday-school.  Inadequate  conception  of  the  child's 
nature.  Misconception  as  to  pastoral  obligations.  The 
growth  of  more  healthful  views. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD 

To  the  young  chaplain  who  inquired  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  whether,  in  the  face  of  the 
prejudice,  superstition,  and  ignorance  of  the 
Hindus,  it  did  not  seem  to  him  a  hopeless  and 
extravagant  enterprise  to  preach  the  Christian 
religion  to  the  people  of  India,  the  answer  came 
back  without  a  moment's  hesitation  :  "  Look,  sir, 
to  your  marching  orders — '  Preach  the  gospel  to 
very  creature.'  " 

This  suggests  the  course  for  us  to  pursue  in 
considering  the  duty  of  the  Christian  minister  in 
relation  to  the  young  people  of  his  congregation. 
His  work  among  them,  whether  in  the  pulpit,  the 
school,  or  the  home  ;  whether  as  preacher,  teacher, 
or  friend,  must  be  settled  by  the  instructions  and 
examples  which  he  finds  in  the  Bible.  The  author 
of  this  book  is  the  Father  of  the  child.  In  no 
other  volume  in  all  literature  is  there  a  gallery  of 
children  with  faces  so  varied  or  so  interesting. 
Every  type  of  child  may  be  found  there,  and  the 
tenderest  as  well  as  the  ripest  life  is  set  in  high 
and  inspiring  light,  and  looked  at  with  reference 

3 


4  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

not  to  time  alone  but  also  to  still  wider  and  more 
lasting  relations.  So  that  when  we  study  what 
by  precept  and  example  the  Bible  teaches  us  as  to 
the  children,  we  may  expect  to  find  our  way  direct 
to  the  will  of  God  in  relation  to  the  church  in  its 
treatment  of  them,  and  to  that  will,  also,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  minister  of  his  holy  religion,  who  by 
his  life  and  teaching  is  the  servant  of  the  church 
and  the  messenger  of  the  gospel  to  the  youngest 
lamb  of  the  fold. 

Unquestionably  much  attention  is  given  in  the 
Bible  to  the  lives  of  children.  The  charm  which 
the  book  has  for  those  who  have  not  as  yet 
caught  its  deeper  notes  is  due  in  large  measure  to 
this.  In  contrast  with  other  sacred  books  of  the 
ages  it  is  full  of  child  life.  In  its  earlier  chapters, 
onward  from  the  voice  that  calls  Cain  to  account 
for  the  death  of  his  brother,  we  are  taught  the 
lesson,  afterward  to  be  emphasized  by  Jesus  him- 
self, that  the  life  of  the  young  is  dear  to  God. 
The  destinies  of  the  world  seem  to  travel  down 
to  Egypt  with  the  lad  Joseph,  and  to  rock  with 
the  infant  Moses  in  his  ark  of  bulrushes  on  the 
Nile.  The  helm  of  history  is  for  the  time  in  the 
grasp  of  the  child.  And  this  in  its  turn  suggests 
that  in  the  sight  of  God  the  child  is  not  only  dear 
to  his  heart,  but  also  precious  beyond  our  human 
computation.  It  is  from  him  that  we  learn  that 
it  is 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  5 

Awful  to  behold 
A  helpless  infant  newly  born, 
Whose  little  hands  unconscious  hold 
The  keys  of  darkness  and  of  dawn. 

The  old  schoolmaster  who  always  lifted  his  cap 
to  his  scholars,  as  to  the  future  masters  of  the 
world,  was  right.  Jacob  climbing  through  dubious 
paths  to  the  height  of  Peniel  ;  Joseph  learning  that 
it  was  not  his  brethren,  but  God,  who  sent  him 
down  to  Egypt ;  Moses  attaining  to  a  diviner 
parentage  by  refusing  to  be  called  the  son  of 
Pharaoh's  daughter  ;  Samuel  waking  in  the  temple 
to  a  loftier  consecration  than  any  Eli  could  bestow 
as  he  cries,  "  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  hear- 
eth " ;  David  taken  from  the  sheepfold  to  feed 
and  guide  the  chosen  people  ;  Josiah  crowned  a 
child,  but  not  too  young  to  become  a  reformer  as 
well  as  a  ruler — these  are  lives  which  in  their 
earlier  developments  are  prophetic  of  the  mighty 
power  to  be  wielded  through  all  time  by  him  of 
whom  Isaiah  cried  centuries  before  his  birth, 
"  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given, 
and  the  government  shall  be  upon  his  shoulders."1 
So  true  is  it  that  alike  in  the  home,  the  nation, 
and  the  whole  wide  world  it  is  the  little  child  that 
leads.  For  we  have  not  learned  the  teaching  of 
the  Bible  aright  until  from  other  lips  than  those 
of  Jesus  we  hear  the  words  which  gained  a  newer 

1  Isa.  9  :  6. 


6  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

and  deeper  meaning  as  he  spoke  them  :  "  Except 
ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye 
shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  l 

In  considering  what  the  Bible  teaches  as  to  the 
minister  in  his  relation  to  children,  we  will  turn, 
in  the  first  place,  to  the  Old  Testament. 

When  we  do  so,  what  impresses  us  at  once,  I 
think,  is  that  the  whole  history  of  the  human  race 
strikes  its  roots  in  the  family.  Of  Abraham,  the 
Lord  says  :  "  For  I  know  him  that  he  will  com- 
mand his  children  and  his  household  after  him.  "  2 
Here,  in  germ,  is  the  principle  of  family  training, 
out  of  which  I  believe  all  other  training  must 
grow.  Back  of  the  priest  we  see  the  patriarch  ; 
back  of  the  church,  the  family.  Abraham  was 
the  head  of  the  household,  and,  therefore,  its 
minister.  You  remember  how  nobly  Burns  pic- 
tures this  high  office  in  the  "  Cotter's  Saturday 
Night,"  when,  bending  over  the  big  ha'  Bible  : 

The  priestlike  father  reads  the  sacred  page, 

How  Abram  was  the  friend  of  God  on  high  ; 
Or  Moses  bade  eternal  warfare  wage 

With  Amalek's  ungracious  progeny  ! 
Or  how  the  royal  bard  did  groaning  lie 

Beneath  the  stroke  of  heaven' s  avenging  ire  ; 
Or  Job' s  pathetic  plaint  and  wailing  cry  ; 

Or  rapt  Isaiah' s  wild  seraphic  fire  ; 
Or  other  holy  seers  that  tune  the  sacred  lyre. 

1Matt.  18  :3.  2  Gen.  18  :  19. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  7 

And  the  patriarchal  portrait  receives  its  crowning 
touch  when, 

Kneeling  down  to  heaven' s  eternal  king, 

The  saint,  the  father,  and  the  husband  prays. 

The  development  of  the  theocracy  can  be  followed 
step  by  step  from  the  call  of  Abram — "  I  am  the 
Almighty  God,  walk  before  me  and  be  thou  per- 
fect " l — to  the  prophecy  (among  the  last  words 
of  the  Old  Testament)  of  the  day  in  which  "  there 
shall  be  upon  the  bells  of  the  horses  holiness 
unto  the  Lord,"  2  and  through  it  all  no  national 
or  ecclesiastical  changes  are  suffered  to  affect 
this  fact  of  the  supreme  importance  of  the  family 
as  the  foundation  of  human  society.  The  insist- 
ence on  the  duties  which  the  parent  owes  to  the 
child  and  the  child  to  the  parent  hinges  on  the 
truth,  never  lost  sight  of  for  one  instant,  that  God 
is  the  Father  of  both  the  one  and  the  other.  In 
other  words,  it  is  the  religious  aspect  of  the  house- 
hold that  is  of  paramount  importance. 

To  this  may  be  traced  the  obligation  under 
which  the  parent  is  laid  to  train  his  children.  To 
him,  and  not  to  priest  or  instructor,  is  it  said  of 
the  commandments,  the  statutes,  and  the  judg- 
ments by  which  the  people  were  to  be  guided  : 
"  Thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  chil- 

^en.  17:1.  2Zech.  14:20. 


8  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

dren,  and  shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in 
thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way, 
and  when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest 
up."  l  The  preservation  of  the  national  records 
seemed  to  hinge  upon  the  maintenance  of  this  un- 
written history.  So  Joshua  says  to  the  Israelites, 
when  at  last  Jordan  has  been  crossed  and  Canaan 
reached :  "  When  your  children  shall  ask  their 
fathers  in  time  to  come,  saying,  What  mean  these 
stones  ?  Then  ye  shall  let  your  children  know,  say- 
ing, Israel  came  over  this  Jordan  on  dry  land.  For 
the  Lord  your  God  dried  up  the  waters  of  Jordan 
from  before  you,  until  ye  were  passed  over,"  and  the 
spirit  of  the  theocracy  breathes  in  the  final  words 
of  the  passage,  "That  all  the  people  of  the  earth 
might  know  the  hand  of  the  Lord  that  it  is  mighty  : 
that  ye  might  fear  the  Lord  your  God  for  ever."  2 
Thus  is  fulfilled  the  psalmist's  aspiration  in  ages 
long  subsequent  to  this,  "  Instead  of  thy  fathers 
shall  be  thy  children,  whom  thou  mayest  make 
princes  in  all  the  earth."  3  Although  as  the  years 
passed  on  the  disposition  to  do  this  work  of 
parental  instruction  by  proxy  and  deputy  would 
inevitably  grow,  yet  such  passages  as  these,  and 
many  others  like  them,  would  be  ready  to  his  hand 
when  the  national  reformer  recalled  the  Hebrew 
to  his  duties  and  sounded  the  keynote  of  revival 

1Deut.  6:7.  2  Josh.  4:21.  3Ps.  45:16. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  9 

in  the  heart  of  the  family : l  "  Set  your  hearts 
unto  all  the  words  which  I  testify  among  you  this 
day,  which  ye  shall  command  your  children  to 
observe  to  do,  all  the  words  of  this  law."  And 
for  us  the  insistence  upon  parental  obligation  at  a 
time  when  church  and  school  are  such  convenient 
and  capable  substitutes  for  it,  and  when  in  the 
vaunt  of  numbers  we  are  tempted  to  lose  sight  of 
the  value  of  each  one,  is  surely  of  equal  impor- 
tance. There  was  profound  wisdom  as  well  as 
shrewd  wit  in  the  repartee  of  Julia  Ward  Howe 
when  Charles  Sumner  refused  to  give  her  help  for 
a  runaway  Negro,  saying  in  his  lofty  way :  "  I  no 
longer  care  for  the  individual ;  I  am  only  inter- 
ested in  the  race,"  and  she  replied  :  "  I  am  glad 
that  God  Almighty  has  not  got  quite  so  far  as  that 
yet."  We  may  be  well  assured  that  he  never  will, 
and  that  we,  for  our  part,  never  ought  to. 

To  this  hour  the  Jew  is  the  most  powerful  illus- 
tration of  heredity.  Find  him  where  you  may,  he 
cannot  be  hid.  But  this  law  in  its  very  highest 
aspect  is  expressed  in  the  parting  resolve  of 
Joshua:  "As  for  me,  and  my  house,  we  will  serve 
the  Lord."  We  have  no  right  to  insist  upon  the 
malign  and  fatal  working  of  this  law  of  heredity  in 
some  instances,  while  laying  no  stress  upon  its 
golden  fruitage  in  others.      He  who  by  the  opera- 

1  Deut.  32  :  46. 


IO  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

tion  of  a  natural  law  visits  the  iniquities  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation,  also  makes  promise  of  unspeakable 
blessing  to  us  and  to  our  children  if  we  be  obe- 
dient. "The  Scriptures,"  says  Horace  Bushnell, 
"have  a  perpetual  habit,  if  I  may  so  speak,  of 
associating  children  with  the  character  and  destiny 
of  their  parents.  They  do  not  always  regard  the 
individual  as  an  isolated  unit,  but  they  often  look 
upon  men  as  they  exist  in  families  and  races  and 
under  organic  laws."  * 

For  here,  as  elsewhere,  example  speaks  louder 
than  precept.  The  father  is  a  teacher  in  every 
case.  His  very  silence,  his  prayerlessness,  his 
irreligion,  his  indifference  to  the  highest  claims  of 
the  soul,  come  to  form  a  part  of  the  child's  train- 
ing. And  equally  he  who  wears  the  white  flower 
of  a  blameless  life  in  the  presence  of  his  family  is 
a  preacher  of  righteousness,  although  his  lips  are 
inapt  to  set  forth  the  truth  which  is  incarnate  in 
his  daily  conduct.  Both  alike  illustrate  Jean 
Paul's  saying  that  the  mother  puts  the  commas 
and  semicolons  into  the  child's  life,  but  the  father 
the  colons  and  the  periods.  We  remember  how 
the  twisted  strands  run,  now  white  and  now  black, 
through  the  royal  annals  of  Judah  and  Israel : 
"Azariah  did  that  which  was  right  in  the  sight  of 

1  "Christian  Nurture,"  p.  39. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  I  I 

the  Lord,  according  to  all  that  his  father  Amaziah 
had  done,"  or  "  Jehoiachin  did  that  which  was  evil 
in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  according  to  all  that  his 
father  had  done."  l  We  weary  of  the  swing  of 
the  pendulum  with  its  monotonous  burden  until 
we  reflect  that  it  is  the  pendulum  which  always 
and  everywhere  tells  off  the  history  of  human 
lives. 

One  more  word  must  be  added  before  we  leave 
this  point  of  the  duty  of  the  parent  under  the 
theocracy  to  train  his  children  in  religion.  The 
teaching  which  was  prescribed  was  not  so  much  in 
the  history  of  the  nation  as  it  was  in  the  laws  of 
God.  In  our  admiration  of  the  heroic  deeds  by 
which  a  patriotic  ancestry  won  for  us  our  liberties 
are  we  not  tempted  to  overlook  the  principles, 
powerful  and  sometimes  perhaps  stern,  by  which 
their  devotion  was  inspired?  To  "teach  and  to 
do"  were  duties  which  went  hand  in  hand  in  the 
Mosaic  legislation,2  and  both  were  to  be  practised, 
so  that  "  thou  and  thy  son  and  thy  son's  son,  all 
the  days  of  thy  life,"  may  nourish  and  increase  in 
the  land  that  floweth  with  milk  and  honey.  We 
shall  see,  by  and  by,  in  what  this  instruction 
consisted,  but  I  say  this  much  at  once  because  it 
seems  to  me  of  great  moment  that  we  should 
recognize  that  all  religious  teaching  in  home  and 

1  2  Kings  15:3;  2  Kings  24  :  9.  2  Deut.  6. 


12  THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

church  and  school  must  be  scriptural.  The  Bible 
is  not  only  a  book  of  examples,  it  is  also  a  book 
of  precepts.  There  is  law  in  its  life  as  well  as 
life  in  its  law.  The  unfeigned  faith  in  Timothy,1 
his  inheritance  from  his  grandmother  Lois  and  his 
mother  Eunice,  came,  we  may  well  believe,  from 
the  fact  that  from  a  child  he  had  known  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  which  were  able  to  make  him  wise 
unto  salvation. 

We  have  been  speaking  hitherto  of  the  child  in 
the  household  where  the  father  was  in  some  very 
important  sense  priest  as  well  as  patriarch.  This 
must  have  continued  even  after  the  Jewish  hier- 
archy grew  in  stateliness  and  splendor.  The 
claims  of  that  hierarchy  could  never  supersede  the 
rights  and  duties  of  the  parent  toward  his  sons 
and  daughters.  To  them  he  stood  as  the  per- 
petual reminder  of  the  relation  in  which  Jehovah 
stood  toward  each  of  his  children,  for,  as  we 
know,  that  relation  was  paternal,  never  priestly. 
And  so  by  solemn  rites  the  child  was  early  brought 
into  another  family,  wider,  more  wonderful  than 
the  little  circle  at  home — I  mean  the  family  of 
Israel.  The  lesser  led  to  the  larger,  but  to  each 
the  center  was  the  same.  There,  in  the  faith  of 
the  devout  Hebrew,  rose  the  august  and  inspiring 
Presence  to  whom  appeal  might  be  made  by  every 

^Tim.  3:  15. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  13 

son  of  Israel :  "  Have  we  not  all  one  father  ?  hath 
not  one  God  created  us  ?"  * 

Into  this  family  the  Jewish  child  was  brought 
by  a  primitive  rite  which  was  not  peculiar  to  the 
Hebrews.  As  consciousness  asserted  itself  and  the 
world  about  him  appealed  to  his  heart  and  mind  he 
came  to  understand  to  how  much  this  rite  admitted 
him  and  how  widespread  and  how  strong  was  the 
influence  of  his  national  religion.  That  religion 
consisted  of  two  things  :  "  Knowledge  of  God,  which 
by  a  series  of  inferences,  one  from  the  other,  ulti- 
mately resolved  itself  into  theology;  and  service, 
which  again  consisted  of  the  proper  observance  of 
all  that  was  prescribed  by  God  and  of  works 
of  charity  toward  men."  2 

That  multitudes  initiated  into  the  family  and 
trained  in  its  ceremonial  observances  and  in  its 
moral  code  failed  to  take  up  their  sonship  was  of 
course  true.  The  personal  life,  then  as  now,  too 
often  proved  that  all  "are  not  Israel  that  are  of 
Israel."  But  my  point  is  not  affected  by  this  fact. 
What  I  aim  to  make  clear  is  the  perpetual  pres- 
ence of  religion,  ritual  or  moral,  during  the  whole 
life  of  the  Hebrew,  and  especially  for  our  present 
purpose,  during  his  early  years. 

It  was  never  out  of  sight  or  hearing  with  him. 

1  Mai.  2  :  10. 

2  Edersheim,  "Sketches  of  Jewish  Social  Life  in  the  Days  of 
Christ,"  p.  125. 


14  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

Occasionally  he  would  be  taken  up  to  Jerusalem 
to  the  great  festival,  borne  thither  on  a  tide  of 
expectant  or  triumphant  song  and  listening  to  the 
pulsations  of  the  splendid  and  imposing  national 
faith  at  its  fountain  head.  But  independent  of 
these  special  occasions  his  memory  would,  from 
the  first,  be  richly  stored  with  sacred  associations. 
When  his  own  candle  was  added  to  the  family 
illumination  at  the  feast  of  the  Dedication ;  when 
he  took  his  part  in  the  good  cheer  of  Purim  ; 
when  the  home  was  abandoned  for  the  booth  at 
the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  and  when  with  scrupulous 
care  the  Passover  meal  was  made  ready,  he  would, 
perhaps  all  unconsciously  to  himself,  associate  the 
most  gladsome  and  the  most  serious  moments  of 
his  young  life  with  religion.1 

Still  more  to  our  purpose  is  it  to  follow  him  in 
his  hours  of  schooling  in  the  precepts  of  the  law. 
By  and  by  parental  instruction  was  supplemented 
by  the  teaching  of  the  synagogue  school.  Here 
it  was  that,  as  Philo  says,  the  Jews  learned  from 
their  earliest  youth  to  "  bear  the  image  of  the  law 
in  their  souls." 2  The  vicissitudes  of  war,  civil 
strife,  changes  of  fortune  or  of  place,  banishment 
itself,  any  or  all  of  these  might  separate  the  Jew 
from  the  land  of  his  birth  and  from  the  city  of  his 
solemnities,  but  the  synagogue  school  was  a  per- 

1  Edersheim,  "Sketches,"  etc.,  p.  108. 
2 Trumbull,  "Yale  Lectures  on  the  Sunday-school,"  pp.  7,  8. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  1 5 

manent  institution.  Like  the  pillar  in  the  wilder- 
ness, it  went  with  him  always,  alike  in  the  daylight 
and  in  the  darkness  of  his  fortunes.  Instruction 
in  the  law  came  in  time  to  rise  above  public  wor- 
ship among  the  features  of  the  synagogue.  The 
exile  multiplied  these  Bible-schools  amazingly. l 
At  least  eleven  different  expressions  were  coined 
to  describe  them.  Attendance  upon  them  ulti- 
mately became  obligatory.  At  five  years  of  age 
the  Hebrew  Bible  was  to  be  begun,  and  that,  let 
us  notice,  not  with  Genesis,  but  with  Leviticus  ; 
not  with  history,  but  with  law.2  From  the  age  of 
six  onward  through  his  whole  life  the  Hebrew 
remained  in  school.  "  Entering  thus  early,"  says 
Doctor  Trumbull,  "  the  Jewish  scholar  never  came 
to  an  age  for  graduation  from  that  school.  He 
was  to  continue  in  it  during  his  earthly  life-course 
and  at  death  he  was  supposed  to  pass  on  into  the 
heavenly  Bible-school  beyond."  3 

We  see,  then,  that  the  Sunday-school  of  to-day 
is  in  the  direct  line  of  succession  from  the  Bible- 
school  of  the  Jewish  synagogue,  and  so  we  can 
understand  the  satisfaction  with  which,  a  century 
or  more  ago,  Robert  Raikes,  the  founder  of  our 
modern  schools,  wrote  after  attending  the  first 
anniversary  of  the  Sunday-school  in  an  English 
parish  church  :  "  The  happy  choice  of  a  text  had  a 

1  Trumbull,  "Yale  Lectures  on  the  Sunday-school,"  pp.  8,  u. 
2  Edersheim,  "Sketches,"  p.  130.        3  "  Yale  Lectures,"  p.  192. 


l6         THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

remarkable  effect  in  commanding  the  attention  of 
the  audience.  The  Scriptures  could  not  have 
furnished  a  passage  more  literally  applicable  to  the 
subject.  It  was  taken  from  Deut.  31  :  12,  13: 
«  Gather  the  people  together,  men,  and  women, 
and  children,  and  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy 
gates,  that  they  may  hear,  and  that  they  may 
learn,  and  fear  the  Lord  your  God,  and  observe  to 
do  all  the  words  of  this  law  :  and  that  their  chil- 
dren, which  have  not  known  any  thing,  may  hear, 
and  learn  to  fear  the  Lord  your  God.'  "  l 

When  from  the  Old  Testament  we  pass  to  the 
New,  we  find  no  material  change  in  the  view  of 
infancy,  childhood,  and  youth,  as  God  sees  them 
and  as  he  wills  that  his  ministers  shall  regard 
them. 

Now,  the  prominent  figure  in  our  pictures  is 
Jesus,  the  ideal  young  Hebrew.  Glance  at  his 
own  life.  A  poor  woman  standing  in  a  London 
gallery  before  a  picture  of  the  Virgin  and  Child, 
was  heard  to  say,  "  Who  wouldn't  be  a  good 
mother  with  such  a  son  as  that  ? "  But  that  his 
Father's  business  is  calling  to  him  so  imperiously, 
we  could  wish  that  we  knew  more  of  that  fair 
childhood  and  that  opening  youth.  What  we  do 
know  is  wonderfully  fascinating.  In  the  temple 
at  eight  days  old  he  was  initiated  into  the  family 

1  Gregory's  "Life  of  Robert  Raikes,"  p.  178. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  \J 

of  Israel.  Over  the  babe,  cradled  in  his  arms, 
devout  Simeon  broke  forth  into  the  prayer  which 
in  its  last  words 

Did  attain 
To  something  of  prophetic  strain. 

In  Nazareth,  growing  in  wisdom  as  he  grew  in 
age,  Jesus  was  subject  to  his  parents  ;  and  in  all 
probability  in  the  synagogue  school  of  the  little 
city  "he  learned  his  earliest  earthly  lesson  from 
the  book  of  Leviticus."  l 

So  he  made  ready  for  the  visit  to  Jerusalem 
which  was  taken  "  after  the  custom  of  the  feast  "  ; 2 
and  in  the  higher  school,  as  we  may  dare  to  call  it, 
in  the  temple,  the  boy  of  twelve  found  his  place 
among  the  doctors  of  the  law,  "  hearing  them  and 
asking  them  questions,  so  that  all  that  heard  him 
were  astonished  at  his  understanding  and  an- 
swers." 

Consider  the  course  which  Jesus  pursued  with 
children  and  young  people.  Naturally  they  had  a 
great  charm  for  him.  Still  in  his  eyes  heaven  lay 
around  them.  To  have  a  little  child  in  his  arms 
was  to  come  nearer  to  heaven  than  he  could  come 
in  any  other  way.  Follower  and  crowd  had  to 
stand  back  when  the  child  appealed  to  his  love. 
There  was  a  depth  in  the  child's  wondering  glance, 
and  a  response  in  the  child's  simple  embrace  which 

1  Trumbull,  p.  29.  2  Luke  2  :  42. 


1 8  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

he  sought  for  in  vain  elsewhere.  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  was  within  appreciable  reach  of  the  arms 
that  held  the  infant,  and  the  child  set  in  the  midst 
of  envious  and  ambitious  disciples — a  jewel  in  a 
swine's  snout — preached  a  silent  sermon  on  the 
humility  without  which  no  man  can  ever  be  truly 
great.  The  man  whom  we  think  of  as  the  young- 
est and  most  childlike  among  the  apostles  was  the 
disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  and  the  only  other  time 
when  that  expression  is  used  is  when  the  young 
ruler  kneels  at  his  feet  to  ask  what  he  shall  do  to 
inherit  eternal  life.  The  young  girl  at  his  bidding 
arose  from  the  dead  ;  and  it  was  a  young  man,  the 
only  son  of  his  mother  and  she  a  widow,  on  whom 
he  worked  the  miracle  of  resurrection  at  the  gate 
of  Nain. 

This  natural  attraction  toward  the  life  which 
was  still  in  its  springtide  comes  to  have  a  deeper 
meaning  when  we  listen  to  the  words  which  fell 
from  our  Lord's  lips  as  to  children.  Of  such,  he 
said  again  and  again,  was  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
To  despise  one  of  these  little  ones  was  the  gravest 
offense,  "for  I  say  unto  you,  that  in  heaven  their 
angels  do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  l  Among  the  last  injunctions 
to  Peter  was  that  to  "  Feed  my  lambs,"  which,  in- 
terpret it  as  we  may,  can  scarcely  have  been  spoken 

1  Matt.  18  :  io. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  1 9 

without  some  profound  reference  to  the  young  life 
to  be  hereafter  folded  in  the  church  which  our 
Lord  came  to  found.1 

It  is  to  Jesus,  then,  that  we  look  as  the  model 
teacher,  for  while  John  the  Baptist  came  preaching 
in  the  wilderness,  it  was  Jesus  who  rather  taught,2 
beside  the  lake  or  in  the  court  of  the  temple.  It 
is  in  Jesus  that  we  see  the  model  pastor,  by  his  last 
words  to  Peter  and  the  other  disciples  giving  its 
perpetual  place  in  the  Christian  ministry  to  the 
prophecy  of  Isaiah,  "  He  shall  feed  his  flock  like  a 
shepherd,  he  shall  gather  the  lambs  with  his  arms, 
and  carry  them  in  his  bosom."  3 

It  is  to  Jesus  also  that  we  turn  for  the  model  of 
what  each  minister  should  aim  to  be  in  his  relation 
to  the  young  people  of  his  congregation.  More 
than  the  teacher,  more  than  the  pastor,  he  should 
aspire  to  be  their  friend.  For  the  infant  in  arms, 
for  the  little  child  beginning  to  run,  for  the  young 
man  on  the  threshold  of  life,  Jesus  had  an  irresist- 
ible attractiveness.  He  had,  as  no  other  before  or 
since,  the  one  touch  of  nature  which  makes  the 
whole  world  kin.  And  this  youth  saw  and  to 
this  youth  responded,  while  lives  more  mature  in 
the  ways  of  the  world  held  aloof. 

On  the  mount  of  ascension  Jesus  was  parted 
from  his  disciples  and  a  cloud  received  him  out  of 

1  Craft,  "The  Bible  and  the  Sunday-school,"  p.  107. 
2  Trumbull,  p.  33.  3  Isa.  40  :  II. 


20  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

their  sight.  But  still  the  traditional  insistence 
upon  the  value  of  the  child,  which  lay  at  the  very 
foundation  of  the  Jewish  theocracy,  and  received 
a  fresh  emphasis  from  the  lips  of  our  Lord,  re- 
mained. "  For  the  promise,"  said  Peter  in  his 
address  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  "  is  to  you,  and 
to  your  children."  l  Children  at  a  very  early  age 
were  baptized  and  added  to  the  Lord.  There  is 
nothing  which  makes  Paul  so  much  one  of  our- 
selves as  his  tender  affection  for  Titus,  "  my  own 
son,"  or  for  "  Son  Timothy,"  2  the  heir  of  his  in- 
spiring charges ;  or  for  Onesimus  the  runaway 
slave,  "whom  I  have  begotten  in  my  bonds."  In 
Timothy  himself  we  find  the  earliest  example  of 
boyhood  in  a  Christian  family.  "  To  his  recollec- 
tion, there  probably  never  was  a  time  when  he  did 
not  sympathize  with  the  piety  so  venerable  in  Lois, 
so  lovely  in  Eunice.  He  had  been  trained  for 
Christ,  and  grew  up  a  lamb  in  the  Shepherd's 
fold."3 

Paul's  Epistles  are  the  witnesses  that  because  a 
boy  or  girl  came  into  that  fold  filial  duties  were 
by  no  means  relaxed.  Rather  were  they  strength- 
ened by  new  and  more  sacred  bonds.  "Children,"4 
the  injunction  now  ran,  "obey  your  parents  in  the 
Lord  ;  for  this  is  right."      Here  was  a  new  motive 

1  Acts  2  :  39.  2  I  Tim.  I  :  18. 

3  S.  G.  Green,  "Christian  Ministry  to  the  Young,"  p.  18. 

4  Eph.  6  :  I. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  21 

for  a  natural  duty.  You  catch  its  force  still  bet- 
ter in  another  form  of  the  same  injunction  :  "Chil- 
dren, obey  your  parents  in  all  things  ;  for  this  is 
well  pleasing  unto  the  Lord."  l  The  ancient  Jew- 
ish conception  seems  to  be  lifted  into  a  serener 
light  as  we  listen  to  John  when  he  begins  his  sec- 
ond Epistle  :  "  The  elder  unto  the  elect  lady,  and 
her  children,  whom  I  love  in  the  truth."  2 

As  to  distinct  teaching,  such  as  was  the  strength 
of  the  synagogue  school,  it  is  abundantly  evident 
that  to  it  under  the  new  order  which  was  gradually 
growing  up,  all  the  old  honor  was  paid.3  Paul,  who 
had  himself  been  a  scholar  in  the  school  of  Gama- 
liel, made  the  synagogue  wherever  he  went  in  his 
journeys  as  a  Christian  missionary  the  scene  of 
careful,  patient,  exhaustive  teaching,  while  at 
Athens,4  in  the  market-place,  every  day,  he  dis- 
cussed the  truths  of  the  kingdom  with  them  that 
met  with  him.  There  seems,  therefore,  to  be 
some  reason  in  the  claim  that  the  ancient  Jewish 
schools,  which  had  gained  in  number  and  in  influ- 
ence after  the  exile,  became  now  "  the  fresh  start- 
ing points  of  the  Christian  church 5  in  all  the 
earlier  apostolic  work  under  the  requirements  and 
the  authority  of  the  Great  Commission."  The 
Bible-school  was  literally  the  nursery  of  the  church. 
"The  Apostolic  Church,"  as  Baron  Bunsen  says, 

1  Col.  3  :  20.  2  2  John  I.  3  Trumbull,  p.  48. 

*  Acts  17:17.  5  Trumbull,  p.  48. 


22  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

"  made  the  school  the  connecting  link  between 
herself  and  the  world."  !  And  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  which  is  indeed  but  the  first  chapter  in 
the  acts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  which  no  limit  of 
time  can  be  put,  closes  appropriately  with  the 
figure  of  Paul  in  his  own  hired  house  in  Rome,2 
where  he  received  all  that  came  in  unto  him, 
preaching  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  teaching  those 
things  which  concern  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with 
all  confidence,  no  man  forbidding  him."  A  teacher 
to  the  last,  and  so  a  model  for  many  of  us  to  whom 
may  be  denied  his  eloquent  tongue,  his  burning 
zeal,  and  the  varied  and  adventurous  chapters  in 
the  history  of  his  ministry. 

My  reason  for  pursuing  this  line  of  thought  will 
be  made  plain  if  we  pass  from  this  clear,  exhilarat- 
ing air  into  the  ages  which  followed.  To  do  so  is, 
little  by  little,  to  change  our  atmosphere  for  the 
worse.  How  this  happened  it  is  not  to  our  pur- 
pose to  describe.  The  Hebrew  conception  of  the 
home,  with  its  careful  training  in  the  law,  dies  out. 
The  apostolic  practice  of  free  discussion  is  trans- 
formed into  the  medieval  pronouncement  of  dog- 
matic conclusions.  The  simple  rites  of  the  primi- 
tive church  stiffen  into  awful  and  mysterious 
sacraments.  There  is  little  or  no  home  nurture 
encouraged.     The    child    is    handed    over   to   the 

1  Trumbull,  p.  39.  2  Acts  28  :  30,  31. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  23 

priest  for  instruction.  The  formal  catechism,  with 
its  perplexing  definitions,  becomes  the  authoritative 
substitute  for  the  more  natural  conversation  of  an 
earlier  day.  Jesus  no  longer  sits  in  the  midst  of 
the  doctors,  hearing  them  and  asking  them  ques- 
tions. The  child  spirit  is  not  now  welcome  there, 
and  the  heart  of  the  child  beats  there,  warm  and 
responsive,  no  more.  An  era  comes  of  hard  dog- 
matic theology.  In  science  the  Middle  Ages 
made  the  sun  go  round  the  earth,  substituting 
center  for  circumference  ;  and  in  their  religious 
dialectics,  by  a  like  confusion  between  greater 
and  less,  the  world  of  human  life  revolves  about  a 
hard  and  fast  system  of  thought.  In  the  sphere  of 
our  own  subject  the  child  is  made  for  theology,  not 
theology  for  the  child.  Among  other  ominous 
features  which  mark  this  changed  aspect  of  the 
Christian  faith  we  note  the  growth  of  fear  as  an 
instrument  of  spiritual  influence.  Threats  take 
the  place  of  promises,  and  once  more  the  disciples 
repel  the  child  from  the  arms  of  the  Master. 

It  might  be  a  suggestive  inquiry,  were  this  the 
place  to  pursue  it,  how  far  the  debased  medieval 
teaching  as  to  children  in  their  relation  to  the 
church  cast  a  shadow  over  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion, which  was  a  revolt  against  it,  and  to  what 
extent  that  shadow  lingered  in  the  later  Puritan 
teaching,  which  influences  us  yet.  Because  this 
influence  has  been  so  virile  in  its  effect  on  the  life 


24  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

of  the  church  and  the  commonwealth  we  must 
pause  for  a  few  moments  to  glance  at  one  or  two 
of  its  characteristics. 

Let  us  try  to  picture  to  ourselves  what  religion 
meant  to  the  Puritan  boy  or  girl  in  the  old  Eng- 
land of  the  Ironsides  or  in  the  New  England  of 
the  Massachusetts  settlers. 

"  When  your  children  shall  ask  their  fathers  "  ! 
suggests  the  Jewish  method  of  teaching.  It  is 
significant  that  the  question  comes  from  the  child, 
the  answer  from  the  parent.  An  exchange  of  this 
kind  has  often  dismayed  the  elders  as  much  as  if 
the  boy  had  gained  possession  of  the  rod  or  the 
horse  of  the  spur.  But  in  the  early  Christian  time 
the  religious  teaching,  following  the  Jewish  model, 
"  was  mainly  by  the  approved  means  of  question 
and  answer."  2  The  word  "homily"  suggests  that 
in  the  services  of  the  meeting-house  the  sermon 
was  so  free  in  its  cast  that  questions  were  en- 
couraged. "  Even  when  the  ministry  was  trans- 
ferred to  a  designated  class  of  persons  this  right 
of  joining  in  conversation  with  the  preacher  (as  he 
discoursed)  was  not  wholly  surrendered  by  the 
congregation."  3  To  the  neglect  and  abandonment 
of  this  wholesome  practice  we  owe  it  that  the  tone 
of  the  preacher  became  gradually  authoritative  and 
dogmatic,  "  As  who  should  say,  '  I  am  Sir  Oracle, 

1  Josh.  1:51.  2  Trumbull,  p.  52.  *Ibid.,  p.  54. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  25 

and  when  I  ope  my  lips  let  no  dog  bark.'"  The 
Bible-school  of  Paul  and  his  fellow-apostles  (had  it 
been  preserved)  would  have  held  the  spirit  of 
ecclesiastical  assumption  in  check.  The  layman 
would  have  had  his  chance.  Even  the  child  might 
have  put  his  question.  The  evidence  is  only  too 
abundant  that  the  reverse  condition  of  things  pre- 
vailed. The  layman  who  raised  his  voice  was  apt 
to  pay  for  his  contumacy  with  his  life.  And  even 
under  the  Puritan  rule  the  child  was  bidden  to  be 
seen  but  not  heard.  The  prevailing  impression  as 
to  children,  in  the  England  on  either  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  seems  to  have  been  that  they  must  be 
held  in,  if  not  with  bit  and  bridle,  then  with  rod 
and  rule.  Dr.  E.  N.  Kirk,  in  our  own  country, 
recalled  the  days  of  his  childhood  as  days  "  when 
indoctrination  and  restraint  were  the  highest  aim 
of  parents,  preachers,  and  teachers." 

The  Puritan  was  so  much  accustomed  to  be 
persecuted  that  we  need  not  wonder  at  his  import- 
ing into  the  theological  teaching  which  he  gave  to 
his  children  some  of  the  sterner  and  harsher 
elements  of  medieval  theology.  I  cannot  think 
that  religion  to  the  Puritan  boy  was  so  joyous  or 
so  wholesome  a  thing  as  it  was  to  the  young  He- 
brew. The  "New  England  Primer"  was  scarcely 
an  evolution  from  the  conversations  in  Paul's  hired 
house  in  Rome,  and  the  "  Bay  Psalm  Book" 
can  hardly  be  put  in  tune  with  the  jubilant  or- 


26  THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

chestra  of  the  sons  of  Asaph.  To  refer  to  the 
"New  England  Primer"  is  to  speak  of  the  Ameri- 
can classic  of  the  eighteenth  century,  about  which 
it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  "  there  never  has 
been  printed  in  this  country  a  book  laying  no 
claim  to  inspiration  whose  influence  has  been  so 
extended  and  enduring  as  that  of  the  <  New  Eng- 
land Primer.'"  In  many  respects,  I  had  almost 
said  in  most,  it  seems  to  be  a  compendium  of 
religious  faith  and  practice  well  worthy  of  the 
place  which  it  held  unchallenged  for  a  hundred 
years  in  the  life  of  the  colonists.  All  the  more 
interesting,  therefore,  is  it  to  turn  to  its  pages  for 
light  upon  our  present  subject.  There  is  much 
said  and  taught  as  to  young  people.  These  four 
lines  we  are  bidden  learn  by  heart  : 

Have  communion  with  few, 

Be  intimate  with  One, 
Deal  justly  with  all, 

Speak  evil  of  none. 

Are  they  not  almost  cynical  in  their  shrewdness  ? 
Certainly  they  are  not  likely  to  promote  sociability. 
The  "Advice  to  Youth,"  in  another  part  of  the 
book,  is  not  founded  on  the  Gospels,  but  is  a 
paraphrase  from  the  closing  words  of  Ecclesiastes, 
and  what  we  notice  is  that  the  burden  of  its  mes- 
sage recalls  rather  the  despair  of  Anacreon  than  the 
exhilaration  of  the  last  chapter  of  the  Philippians  : 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  2J 

Behold,  the  months  come  hasting  on 
When  you  shall  say,  my  joys  are  gone. 

The  view  of  sin  is  remarkable  chiefly  by  defect. 
Much  stress  is  laid  upon  its  origin  in  the  heart, 
due  to  "  Adam's  sin  imputed  to  me,  and  a  corrupt 
nature  dwelling  in  me,"  so  that  this  nature  is 
"  empty  of  grace,  bent  unto  sin,  only  unto  sin  and 
that  continually."  But  little  is  made  of  its  moral 
heinousness,  of  the  present  punishment  it  brings 
with  it,  of  the  shame  and  degradation  into  which 
it  drags  our  manhood  and  womanhood.  Even  in 
the  lines  which  seem  to  incline  toward  a  brighter 
view  of  the  possibilities  of  life,  a  sudden  twist  at 
the  last  brings  in  the  inevitable  lash : 

What' s  right  and  good  now  show  me,  Lord, 
And  teach  me  by  thy  grace  and  word. 
Thus  shall  I  be  a  child  of  God, 
And  love  and  fear  thy  hand  and  rod. 

This  element  of  fear  is  rarely  absent,  but  in  al- 
most every  instance  it  is  dread  of  future  retribu- 
tion rather  than  of  present  punishment.  At  any 
moment  that  future  may  become  the  present,  for 

Cruel  death  is  always  near, 
So  frail  a  thing  is  man. 

Even  in  the  famous  alphabet  from  which  genera- 
tions of  New  England  children  learned  their  let- 
ters, Y  gives  us  a  cut  of  a  boy  with  a  wine  cup 


28         THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

rather  larger  than  his  head  before  him,  while  the 
skeleton  at  the  feast  rises  on  the  other  side  of  the 
table,  and  the  cheerful  legend  runs  : 

While  youth  do  cheer, 
Death  may  be  near, 

and  the  exigencies  of  the  letter  which  comes  be. 
fore  this, — X, — are  met  by  bidding  the  child  to 
say — and  how  he  must  have  wondered  who 
"  Xerxes  "  was  :  — 

Xerxes  did  die,  and  so  must  I. 

Probably  in  all  Protestant  literature  there  is 
nothing  more  sombre  or  tragic  than  the  "  Dialogue 
between  Christ,  Youth,  and  the  Devil,"  with  which 
this  primer  concludes.  It  is  at  some  grotesquely 
terrible  twelfth  century  carving  over  a  cathedral 
portal  that  we  seem  to  be  gazing  as  we  read  what 
Death,  the  last  speaker,  says  : 

Youth,  I  am  come  to  fetch  thy  breath, 
And  carry  thee  to  the  shades  of  death. 
No  pity  on  thee  can  I  show, 
Thou  hast  thy  God  offended  so. 
Thy  soul  and  body  I'll  divide, 
Thy  body  in  the  grave  I'll  hide, 
And  thy  dear  soul  in  hell  must  lie 
With  devils  to  eternity. 

It  almost  appears  as  though  the  treatment  of 
children  were  somehow  turned  about  since  the  days 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  29 

when  Jesus  drew  the  babes  to  his  arms  and  blessed 
them.  The  answers  in  the  "  Shorter  Catechism  " 
are  as  a  rule  admirable,  and  the  definition  of  the 
chief  end  of  man  has  probably  never  been  ex- 
celled. But  to  commit  these  answers  to  memory, 
as  an  exercise  in  sheer  mnemonics,  must  have  led 
to  a  wrong  conception  of  religion.  The  intellect 
rather  than  the  heart  was  appealed  to.  And  so  the 
mischief  made  itself  apparent  when  a  system  or  a 
scheme  of  theology  took  the  place  of  religion,  and 
the  decisions  of  councils  or  assemblies,  embodied 
in  carefully  weighed  phrases,  rose  between  the 
child  and  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ.  It 
seems  strange  when  we  remember  the  picture  of 
Philip  Doddridge,  the  little  boy,  learning  the 
Scripture  history  from  the  Dutch  tiles  in  the  fire- 
place, as  he  sat  on  his  mother's  knee,  to  hear 
Philip  Doddridge  the  divine  saying  :  "  Without  a 
miracle  it  cannot  be  expected  that  much  of  the 
Christian  scheme  could  be  understood  by  these 
little  creatures  in  the  first  dawning  of  reason, 
though  a  few  evangelical  phrases  may  be  taught 
(to  them),  and  sometimes,  by  a  happy  kind  of  acci- 
dent, may  be  rightly  applied."  l  In  that  saving 
clause  of  concession,  "a  happy  kind  of  accident," 
lay  the  whole  catechetical  method,  and  among  the 
triumphs  of  the  evangelical  revival,  for  which  no 

1  Trumbull,  p.  125. 


30  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

man  sighed  more  sincerely  or  prayed  more  ear- 
nestly than  did  Philip  Doddridge,  the  establishment 
and  spread  of  the  Sunday-school  is  assuredly  one 
of  the  most  glorious. 

Striking  its  roots  in  the  Middle  Ages  rather 
than  in  the  first  days  of  Christianity,  the  Puritan 
conception  of  the  child  was  so  much  in  evidence 
when  the  Sunday-school  system  was  founded  that 
it  is  well  for  us  to  recognize  its  powerful  influence. 
It  is  impossible  to  acquit  that  conception  of  grave 
injustice  to  the  child  himself,  and  consequently  of 
grave  misapprehension  of  the  minister's  duty 
toward  him. 

Was  it  not  a  mistake  to  make  religion  so  largely 
a  matter  of  the  understanding,  to  the  neglect  of 
the  feelings  ?  To  do  this  (and  it  has  always  been 
the  weakness  of  Protestantism)  was  untrue  to  the 
child's  nature.  In  it  there  are  wide  and  fruitful 
margins  of  imagination  bordering  the  hard,  beaten 
track  of  fact.  Nothing  in  the  child's  life  is  felt  apart 
from  its  atmosphere,  or  looked  at  apart  from  its 
sunlight.  A  child  sees  each  thing  in  the  concrete, 
or  else  sees  it  not  at  all.1  Perhaps  in  consequence 
of  this  natural  delight  in  fancy,  the  child  finds  very 


1  "When  I  say  my  prayers, "  a  little  child  said  lately,  "I  al- 
ways see  everything.  When  T  say,  '  deliver  us  from  evil,'  I  see 
God  going  out  with  a  spear  to  fight  Satan  ;  and  when  I  say,  '  for- 
give us  our  trespasses,'  I  see  him  with  a  big  rubber  cleaning  a 
blackboard." 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  3  I 

few  difficulties  in  the  narratives  of  the  Bible. 
Often  he  lives  in  a  world  of  imagination  ;  and  there 
the  axe  can  swim,  and  the  cruse  of  salt  can  heal 
the  bitter  waters  of  the  fountain  ;  under  stress  of 
circumstances  there  is  nothing  wonderful  in  the 
ass  speaking,  and  it  was  to  be  expected  that  the 
whale,  being  prepared  for  the  purpose,  would  swal- 
low Jonah.  There  is  no  skepticism  in  a  healthy 
childhood,  and  so  the  highest  science  when  once  it 
recognizes  that  there  are  more  things  in  heaven 
and  earth  than  are  dreamed  of  in  our  philosophy, 
sees  a  new  application  in  those  great  words : 
"  Whosoever  therefore  shall  humble  himself  as  a 
little  child,  the  same  is  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  l 

Consider  also  the  misconception  which  the  min- 
ister is  likely  to  form,  under  the  teaching  which 
we  have  in  view,  of  his  duties  and  privileges  as  the 
pastor  of  the  lambs  of  the  flock. 

The  extreme  emphasis  which  the  Puritan  clergy- 
man placed  on  a  corrupt  nature  in  the  child  would 
be  likely  to  befog  him  as  he  looked  at  children 
themselves.  He  would  endeavor  to  make  them 
square  with  his  theology,  and  although  it  might  be 
a  task  as  difficult  and  painful  of  accomplishment 
as  the  Chinese  foot-binding,  yet  it  must  be  done. 
So  the  child  would  not  be  understood  ;  and  here 


Matt. 


32  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

as  elsewhere  ignorance  as  to  your  material  is  likely 
to  prove  fatal  to  sound  building.  Then,  in  due 
course  the  time  came  when  the  pendulum  swung 
to  the  opposite  extreme,  and  Channing's  appeal 
found  many  responsive  hearers  : 

j  You  must  have  faith  in  the  child  whom  you  instruct. 
Believe  in  the  greatness  of  its  nature,  and  in  its  capacity 
of  improvement.  .  .  Have  faith  in  his  nature,  especially 
as  fitted  for  religion.  Do  not,  as  some  do,  look  on  the 
child  as  born  under  the  curse  of  God,  as  naturally  hostile 
to  all  goodness  and  truth.  .  .  Was  it  an  infant  demon 
which  Jesus  took  in  his  arms  and  said,  "Of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  "  ?  Is  the  child  who,  as  you  relate  to 
him  a  story  of  suffering  or  generosity,  listens  with  a  tearful 
or  kindling  eye  and  a  thrilling  heart,  is  he  a  child  of  hell  ? 
My  friends,  have  faith  in  the  child  ;  not  that  it  is  virtuous 
and  holy  at  birth  ;  for  virtue  or  holiness  is  not,  cannot  be, 
born  with  us,  .  .  but  have  faith  in  the  child  as  capable  of 
knowing  and  loving  the  good  and  the  true,  as  having  a  con- 
science to  take  the  side  of  duty,  as  open  to  ingenuous  mo- 
tives for  well-doing,  as  created  for  knowledge,  wisdom, 
piety,  and  disinterested  love. l 

Another  evil  which  may  be  traced  to  an  erro- 
neous view  of  the  resources  and  capacities  of  the 
young,  was  a  disbelief  in  their  early  conversion. 
"  A  New  England  clergyman's  wife,"  says  Dr. 
Trumbull,  "  told  me,  years  ago,  that  when,  as  a 
child,  she  and  one  or  two  of  her  playmates  were 
interested  in  the  subject  of  personal  religion,  they 

1  "Works,"  p.  359. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  33 

dared  not  be  detected  by  their  parents  in  social 
prayer,  lest  their  action  should  be  deemed  irrev- 
erent, and  they  were  necessitated  to  seek  Christ 
clandestinely."  1  When  the  great  awakening- 
swept  over  Northampton,  in  1734,  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards was  "  amazed  at  the  large  numbers  of  chil- 
dren who  professed  what  he  regarded  as  a  genuine 
experience."  2  The  truth  was  that  the  conception 
of  what  conversion  meant  had  become  inadequate 
to  the  thing  itself.  There  were  no  doubt  good 
men  and  true  in  the  churches  who  were  as  much 
scandalized  at  the  early  devotion  of  the  young  as 
were  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  with  the  children 
of  Jerusalem  crying  their  hosannas  before  the 
Saviour  as  he  entered  the  temple,  and  they  as 
much  as  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  needed  to 
lay  to  heart  the  psalmist's  words  :  "  Out  of  the 
mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  thou  hast  perfected 
praise."  3 

Perhaps  it  is  owing  to  these  unrevised  theologi- 
cal conceptions,  which  had  come  centuries  before 
from  the  churches  that  made  no  place  for  conver- 
sion in  their  ecclesiastical  arrangements,  that  the 
Sabbath-school,  when  first  it  was  proposed  in 
America,  found  little  favor  with  many  good  people 
and  some  opposition  from  others.  Professor  Aus- 
tin Phelps,  in  looking  back  to  the  days  of  his  child- 

1  Trumbull,  p.  174.  2  Allen's  "Edwards,"  p.  158. 

3  Matt.  21  :  16. 

C 


34         THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

hood,  remarks  that  biblical  exposition  was  not 
common,  except  in  the  exercises  of  public  worship, 
and  then  he  goes  on  to  say : 

Nearly  all  the  exposition  of  the  Scriptures  which  the 
people  received  was  from  their  pastors  and  was  given  by 
them  from  their  pulpits.  The  formal,  religious  instruction 
of  children  at  home  was  confined  mainly  to  two  things, 
the  Westminster  Catechism  and  the  text  of  Scriptures, 
both  of  which  were  committed  to  memory.  Aged  persons 
are  still  living  who  give  evidence  of  this  fact  in  their  own 
religious  culture. 

The  second  Sabbath-school  in  Massachusetts  was  estab- 
lished by  my  father,  at  the  suggestion  of  a  Christian  lady, 
in  his  parish  at  West  Brookfield.  It  was  done  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  judgment  of  some  of  his  most  devout  parish- 
ioners. They  refused  to  countenance  the  innovation  by  the 
presence  of  their  children.  And  he  has  told  me  that  they 
and  others  who  favored  it  had  reflected  so  little  on  the 
subject  that  they  scarcely  knew  what  to  do  with  the  children 
who  did  attend.1 

It  cannot  be  due  to  mere  accident  that  the  more 
healthful  feeling  and  policy  of  the  ministry  and 
the  church,  as  regards  the  young  people  of  the 
congregation,  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Sunday-school  era.  The  old  New  England  idea 
seems  to  have  been  that  the  Lord's  Day  was  not  to 
be  secularized  by  any  kind  of  instruction.  Not 
even  of  the  Bible  was  there  to  be  any  teaching. 
The  day  was   sacred  to   worship,  and,  while  that 


Theory  of  Preaching, "  p.  206. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  35 

worship  included  its  full  share  of  preaching,  noth- 
ing which  savored  of  a  school  class  was  to  intrude 
upon  it.  For  Bible  instruction  the  week-day 
schools  were  designed.  The  better  class  of  min- 
isters no  doubt  catechised  in  these  schools,  and, 
later,  in  the  churches,  in  an  intelligent  manner. 
But  for  the  rest  it  was  easier  to  preach  than  it  was 
to  catechise,  and  it  was  easier,  when  catechising 
needed  to  be  done,  to  keep  to  the  words  of  the 
book.  So  it  came  about  that  in  process  of  time 
the  catechism  was  dropped  in  the  day-school  in 
favor  of  secular  subjects  and  in  the  church  service 
in  favor  of  the  sermon.  "  An  untaught  genera- 
tion— untaught  in  any  form  of  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed Bible-school — was  a  sure  result,  and  the 
religious  decline  of  New  England  was  inevitable."  l 

Not  yet,  it  would  seem,  had  our  forefathers  dis- 
covered that  often  the  Sunday-school  is  the  starting 
place  for  the  church.  This  is  one  lesson  which 
our  home  missionary  societies  have  taught  us. 
The  church  to-day  owes  fully  as  much  to  the 
school  as  the  school  owes  to  the  church.  How 
emphatically  true  this  is  we  may  have  further  op- 
portunities to  point  out.  At  present  there  are 
two  results  of  this  new  feeling  in  relation  to  chil- 
dren. 

First,  I  think  the  pastor  came  to  believe,  as  his 

1  Trumbull,  pp.  88,  89. 


36  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

predecessors  had  not,  in  bringing  children  into  the 
church.  He  must  fold  as  well  as  feed  the  lambs 
of  the  flock. 

How  reasonable  this  sounds  to  us.  To  quote 
Dr.  Edward  Judson  : 1  "It  is  sometimes  said  that 
even  a  child  can  be  converted;  it  should  be  said 
that  even  a  grown  person  can  be.  The  nearer  the 
cradle,  as  a  rule,  the  nearer  Christ.  The  most 
intelligent  Christians  are  readiest  to  accept  chil- 
dren." And  so  the  same  writer  happily  compares 
the  conversion  of  the  child  to  crossing  a  stream 
near  its  source.  To  do  so  is  easy.  "  Only  a  step 
will  take  you  across,  and  you  may  even  pass  from 
bank  to  bank  without  knowing  it."  But  every 
after  mile  of  the  river's  course,  broadening  the 
water,  increases  the  difficulty  of  crossing.  Perhaps 
it  was  to  meet  this  familiar  experience  that  the 
church,  neglecting  child  conversion  and  Christian 
culture,  was  driven  to  violent  and  artificial  revival 
methods.  The  still  small  voice  had  no  longer  a 
hearing  amid  the  hundred  vociferating  tones  of 
business  and  pleasure,  and  so  the  cornet,  the  big 
drum,  the  American  organ,  by  and  by  the  whole 
orchestra,  had  to  be  turned  on.  More  than  half 
of  the  evils  inevitable  to  the  clamorous  revival — 
noisy,  irreverent,  shallow — must  be  placed  to  the 
account  of  the  church,  which  by  its  neglect  of  the 

1  "The  Institutional  Church,"  p.  109. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILL)  2)7 

reasonable  methods  pursued  under  the  Hebrew 
theocracy,  and  so  on  to  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
was  driven  to  resort  to  methods  which  were  often 
as  unreasonable  as  they  were  unscriptural.  We 
must  of  course  recognize  in  passing  that  the  better 
men  among  the  evangelistic  preachers  are  now  in 
full  and  happy  accord  with  the  more  excellent  way 
which  we  are  commending.  But  it  is  difficult  to 
account  for  the  leakage  in  American  church-mem- 
bership— often  largest  in  the  districts  which  have 
been  roused  and  swept  by  a  revival — on  any  other 
explanation  than  that  the  so-called  conversion  of 
the  young  people  has  been  preceded  by  no  nurture 
and  followed  by  no  training.  It  has  been  little 
more  than  a  passing  breeze,  seized  at  the  moment 
to  fill  the  sails,  and  when  that  has  died  away,  the 
convert,  numbered  among  the  trophies  of  the 
awakening,  has  lain 

As  idle  as  a  painted  ship 
Upon  a  painted  ocean. 

The  humanity  of  early  church-fellowship  must 
be  apparent.  The  nominal  conversion  of  one 
already  versed  in  sin  and  sadly  wise  in  the  ways  of 
the  world  is  often  little  more  than  the  life  pre- 
server which  hangs  from  the  ceiling  of  the  state- 
room in  an  ocean  steamer.  Neglected  at  ordinary 
times,  it  may  be  hastily  assumed  in  a  time  of  dan- 
ger  or  alarm,  perhaps   to   save,   but   perhaps  and 


38  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

quite  as  probably  only  to  entangle  the  wearer  and 
so  hasten  him  to  his  end.  The  simple  and  natural 
conversion  of  the  young  is  like  learning  to  swim, 
once  learned  not  always  practised,  but  never  to  be 
forgotten.  It  should  be  the  aim  of  the  Christian 
minister  to  bring  the  lamb  into  the  fold  before  the 
bitter  winds  are  abroad.  A  wrong  is  done  to  God, 
to  his  wisdom,  and  to  his  love,  by  any  course 
which  allows  men  and  women  to  believe  that 
salvation  is  something  which  comes  in  only  when 
sin  has  run  riot  in  the  soul ;  that  the  far  country, 
with  its  bitter  bondage  and  its  hard  hunger,  is  a 
necessary  step  toward  the  father's  house  and  wel- 
come. There  is  no  need  that  we  continue  in  sin 
that  grace  may  abound.  No  ;  "  Thou  shalt  call 
his  name  Jesus  :  for  he  shall  save  his  people  from 
their  sins."1  Religion  is  indeed  an  antidote  when 
the  poison  has  been  taken,  but  it  is  far  more  and 
far  better.  It  is  a  preventive  first,  and  a  cure 
only  when  as  a  preventive  it  has  not  been  used. 
"I  am,"  says  Jesus,  "  the  bread  of  life."  The 
journey  into  the  far  country,  the  riotous  living,  the 
citizen's  field,  and  the  degrading  companionship  of 
the  swine,  must  have  sown  tares  in  the  memory 
of  the  prodigal  which  would,  in  a  happier  future, 
shame  and  torment  him,  and  from  which  he  might 
have  been  free  had  he  never  cried,  "  Father,  give 

1  Matt.  I  :  21. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  39 

me  the  portion  of  goods  that  falleth  to  me."  No 
return  to  the  God  of  our  youth,  after  we  have 
wandered  far  from  him,  can  take  the  sting  from 
the  natural  law  in  the  spiritual  world :  "  He  that 
soweth  to  his  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corrup- 
tion." 

A  pastor  of  long  experience  says  : 1 

We  are  verily  guilty  if  we  do  not  thoroughly  believe  in, 
labor,  and  pray  for,  early  conversions.  Is  it  not  written  : 
"Remember  now  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth  "  ? 
that  Eli  "perceived  that  the  Lord  had  called  Samuel,  the 
child"  ?  that  Josiah  began,  when  eight  years  old,  to  seek 
after  his  father' s  God  ?  Robert  Hall  became  a  Christian 
at  twelve,  Matthew  Henry  at  seven.  Mr.  Spurgeon  states 
that  in  one  year  he  had  baptized  forty  children  and  that 
they  had  held  out  better  than  an  average  equal  number  of 
adults. 

This  leads  me  to  notice  the  second  feature  in 
our  present  conviction  as  to  the  relation  of  the 
minister  to  the  children  in  his  congregation.  I 
mean  the  increasing  importance  which  he  attaches 
to  Christian  nurture. 

When  Horace  Bushnell  used  that  phrase  a 
generation  ago  it  fell  upon  the  ear  of  the  church 
almost  as  the  accent  of  an  unknown  tongue.  The 
suspicion  of  a  strange  new  doctrine  which  attached 
to  some  of  the  conclusions  of  his  fresh  and  vigor- 
ous volume  attached,  in  a  certain  degree,  even  to 

1  Baldwin,  "  A  Forty-one  Years'  Pastorate,"  pp.  53,  54. 


40         THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

its  fortunate  title.  And  yet  that  title  was  a  re- 
covery, and,  like  the  casket  brought  up  from  the 
sunken  wreck  by  the  diver,  carried  in  it  great 
treasure.  For  Paul  wrote  :  "  And  ye  fathers,  pro- 
voke not  your  children  to  wrath ;  but  bring  them 
up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord." 

How  early  that  nurture  begins — if  indeed  it 
can  even  be  said  to  have  a  beginning — we  need 
not  inquire.  It  should  be  the  atmosphere  into 
which  the  new  life  is  born.  The  child  should  no 
more  be  able  to  recall  its  first  breath  than  he  can 
recall  his  own  first  step.  It  goes  with  the  birth- 
right and  is  part  of  it.  To  the  children  that  have 
not  known  anything,  to  the  little  ones  that  cannot 
discern  between  their  right  hand  and  their  left 
hand,  it  belongs.  Can  any  one  say  when  feeling 
begins  in  the  mind  of  a  boy  or  girl  ?  The  things 
which  still  affect  you  the  most  keenly  are  the 
things  which  cannot  be  traced  to  their  source : 

A  boy' s  will  is  the  wind' s  will, 

And  the  thoughts  of  youth  are  long,  long  thoughts.1 

It  was  for  a  draught  from  the  well  of  Bethlehem 2 
that  David  longed  in  the  hot  day,  begirt  with  the 
enemy,  but  when  first  he  drank  of  that  well  no 
Philistines  rose  between  him  and  its  cool  waters. 
The  remembrance  clung  to  him  through  sheepfold, 

1  Longfellow,  "  My  Lost  Youth."         2  2  Sam.  23  :  16. 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  4 1 

court,  and  camp,  and  at  the  moment  when  his 
thirst  was  fiercest  the  memory  was  the  most  tan- 
talizing, until,  turned  by  the  valor  of  his  three 
mighty  men  into  reality,  it  became  a  drink  offer- 
ing to  be  poured  out  unto  the  Lord. 

At  the  earliest  opportunity,  and  touching  with 
great  care  the  faculties  only  half  conscious,  the 
parent  and  pastor  should  begin  the  work  of  Chris- 
tian nurture.  "  For  before  the  harvest,  when  the 
bud  is  perfect,  and  the  sour  grape  is  ripening  in 
the  flower,  he  shall  both  cut  off  the  sprigs  with 
pruning  hooks  and  take  away  and  cut  down  the 
branches."  l  Millet,  afterward  to  win  fame  as  the 
painter  of  the  "Angelus,"  was  but  a  little  boy 
when  he  saw  his  first  sunset  on  the  waves  ;  his 
first,  I  say,  because  first  in  the  impression  which 
it  made  upon  his  mind.  The  splendor  of  the 
scene  threw  the  child  into  an  ecstasy  of  delight. 
11  My  son,"  his  father  said,  taking  off  his  cap  rev- 
erently, "  it  is  God."  The  boy  never  failed  after 
that  to  associate  with  the  setting  sun  the  power 
and  the  goodness  of  God.  There  were  after  years 
of  willful  wandering  from  him,  but  at  length  the 
influence  started  by  the  profound  word  from  his 
father  brought  him  to  his  true  self  and  to  his  true 
home.  And  so,  to  lift  this  truth  to  its  highest  set- 
ting, we  may  say  with  Horace  Bushnell,2  speaking 

1  Isa.  l8:  5.  2  "  Christian  Nurture,"  pp.  11,  12. 


42  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

of  the  children  thus  early  nurtured  in  the  Chris- 
tian life  : 

Perhaps  they  will  go  through  a  rough  mental  struggle  at 
some  future  day  and  seem  to  others  and  to  themselves  there 
to  have  entered  on  a  Christian  life.  And  yet  it  may  be  true 
that  there  was  still  some  root  of  right  principle  established 
in  their  childhood  which  is  here  only  quickened  and  devel- 
oped, as  when  Christians  of  mature  age  are  revived  in  their 
piety  after  a  period  of  spiritual  lethargy,  for  it  is  conceiv- 
able that  regenerate  character  may  exist  long  before  it  is 
fully  and  formally  developed. 

At  present  I  am  saying  nothing  further  as  to 
the  more  definite  and  formal  training  which  must 
surely  make  an  important  part  of  this  nurture.  So 
much  depends  upon  early  impressions  uncon- 
sciously received  that  I  have  been  content  to  dwell 
chiefly  upon  them.  And  the  pastor  will  be  remem- 
bered by  the  boy  as  that  boy  grows  up  and  leaves 
home,  and  when  sermon  and  prayer  fade  out  of 
his  memory,  more  by  what  he  was  than  by  what 
he  said,  just  as  to  his  old  students  at  Rugby 
Thomas  Arnold  was  not  a  schoolmaster  so  much 
as  a  very  incarnation  of  character  in  the  class 
room  and  of  devotion  in  the  chapel.  But  Christian 
nurture  is  incomplete  if  it  depends  only  or  even 
mainly  upon  the  power  of  a  good  example  or  the 
atmosphere  of  a  godly  home.  There  must  be 
careful  teaching  based  upon  the  truths  revealed  or 
emphasized  in  the  Bible.     It  was  when  Jehosha- 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  43 

phat  sought  the  Lord  so  that  his  heart  was  lifted 
up  in  his  ways  that  he  instituted  throughout  his 
whole  kingdom  the  most  complete  system  of 
biblical  instruction  of  which  we  have  any  record. 
His  chosen  officers  "  taught  in  Judah  ;  and  had  the 
book  of  the  law  of  the  Lord  with  them,  and  went 
about  throughout  all  the  cities  of  Judah  and  taught 
the  people."  l 

Equally  explicit,  in  its  insistence  on  an  intelli- 
gent study  of  Scripture,  is  the  better  known  pic- 
ture of  Ezra  standing  in  the  midst  of  the  people  in 
Jerusalem,  on  his  pulpit  of  wood,  and  to  the  men 
and  women  and  all  that  could  hear  with  under- 
standing, reading  in  the  law  of  God  distinctly  and 
giving  the  sense  and  causing  the  people  to  under- 
stand the  meaning. 

To  do  this  is  primarily  the  work  of  the  parents 
with  their  children,  but  also  of  the  minister  as 
well.  The  crown  and  consummation  of  Christian 
nurture  is  not  an  ability  to  repeat  in  their  order  all 
the  books  of  the  Bible,  or  to  pass  examinations  on 
Scripture  geography  or  on  the  lives  of  the  Herods. 
These  are  but  things  which  accompany  salvation. 
What  we  must  aim  at  supremely  is  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Christian  life. 

My  chief  concern  in  this  chapter  has  been  with 
that.      I  have  tried  to  show  how  strong  and  deep 

1  2  Chron.   17  :  7-9. 


44  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

is  the  divine  love  for  children  and  what  ample  pro- 
vision has  always  been  made  by  our  heavenly 
Father  for  their  religious  education.  Starting 
with  the  far-off  days  when  the  roots  of  national 
life  were  struck  firm  and  deep  in  the  family  and 
when  the  father  was  also  the  priest  to  his  house- 
hold, we  have  followed  the  divine  method  through 
the  life  of  the  Hebrew  people,  catching  the  voice 
of  the  child  in  the  simple  festivals  which  gladdened 
the  year  at  home,  and  the  more  splendid  celebra- 
tions in  the  holy  city  to  which  now  and  again  he  was 
carried.  We  have  seen  how  he  went,  on  the  week 
day  and  on  the  Sabbath  also,  to  the  synagogue, 
associating  the  acquisition  of  all  knowledge  with 
the  fear  of  the  Lord,  which  was  the  beginning  of  it 
all.  We  have  mingled  with  the  throng  that  sur- 
rounded Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  watched  his  tender 
care  of  the  little  ones,  and  listened  to  his  profound 
teaching  as  to  children  and  the  kingdom,  and  seen 
his  divine  glory  as  it  displayed  itself  in  raising 
young  life  from  the  grave.  There  was  no  break  in 
the  line  of  testimony  when  the  present  Jesus  be- 
came the  ascended  Lord.  No  directions  are  clearer 
than  those  which  Paul  gave  to  parent  and  children 
alike,  and  no  more  attractive  or  affecting  picture 
is  there  than  that  of  the  old  veteran  and  his  young 
companions,  Timothy  and  Titus. 

I  have  endeavored  to  indicate  some  of  the  cor- 
rupting causes  to  which  we  must  trace  the  partial 


THE    BIBLE    AND    THE    CHILD  45 

loss  of  this  "tale  of  olden  time,  long,  long  ago"; 
and  with  far  keener  zest,  I  trust,  we  have  seen  the 
recovery  of  the  true  idea — so  closely  bound  up 
with  alike  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament — under 
the  evangelical  revival  of  our  own  era,  which  gave 
to  us  the  institution  of  the  Sunday-school  and  the 
insistence  on  Christian  nurture.  It  was  only  after 
he  had  served  a  painful  apprenticeship  to  expe- 
rience that  Richard  Baxter,  himself  a  prince  in 
the  pulpit,  discovered  that  the  pulpit  is  not  the 
only  throne  which  the  preacher  has  to  fill,  but  that 
"education  is  as  properly  a  means  of  grace  as 
preaching."  *  The  truth  which  came  so  late  to 
him  he  might  have  found  in  the  old  book  of  Prov- 
erbs :  "Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go: 
and  when  he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart  from  it." 2 

1  Bushnell,  p.  25.  2  Pro  v.  22  :  6. 


II 


THE  MODERN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  IN  THE 
EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 


Characteristics  of  the  century.  What  led  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  Sunday-schools.  The  impulse  of  human 
sympathy.  The  evangelical  revival.  Precursors  of  the 
Modern  Sunday-school.  Borromeo,  Alleine,  and  others. 
The  originators  of  the  Sunday-school.  Robert  Raikes, 
Rowland  Hill,  Charles  of  Bala,  Hannah  More.  Immediate 
results. 


II 


THE    MODERN    SUNDAY-SCHOOL   IN   THE  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 

We  are  in  the  habit  of  tracing  the  Sunday- 
schools  of  the  present  time  to  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. While  this  is  true,  it  needs  to  be  remem- 
bered that  the  causes  which  led  to  their  being 
established  were  in  operation  long  before  the 
century  dawned,  and  also  that  the  first  half  of  the 
century  gave  scant  promise  of  the  great  awakening 
in  morals  and  religion  with  which  it  closed.  It 
was  a  period  of  political  and  spiritual  stagnation. 
The  statesmanship  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole  expressed 
its  highest  ambition  in  his  maxim,  "  Quieta  non 
movere."  The  bishops  of  the  Established  Church 
of  England  anticipated  in  their  conduct  and  often 
in  their  counsels  Talleyrand's  famous  advice, 
"  Above  all  things,  no  zeal."  The  Nonconformists 
were  almost  equally  afraid  of  enthusiasm,  and  even 
the  devout  Philip  Doddridge,  while  praying  for  a 
revival  of  religion,  did  not  dare  wish  for  it  to  come 
in  his  time. 

The  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  a 
period  of  moral  barrenness.      Politics  were  corrupt, 

49 


50         THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

social  life  was  coarse,  and  religion,  like  some  shallow 
stream  creeping  through  a  region  of  marsh  and 
sand,  moved  slowly  if  it  moved  at  all.  The  bril- 
liant Granville  had  the  clergy  as  well  as  the  laity 
in  his  thoughts  when,  in  1709,  he  wrote  to  his 
friend  Harley :  "  We  constantly  remember  you,  I 
can't  say  in  our  prayers,  for  I  fear  we  don't  all 
pray,  but  in  our  cups,  for  we  all  drink."  Even 
fifty  years  after  this,  the  genial  bachelor,  Gilbert 
White,  the  vicar  of  Selborne  and  the  chronicler  in 
charming  language  of  its  natural  history,  loved  to 
fill  his  house  with  guests  and  to  dance  on  Saturday 
night  almost  to  the  dawn  of  Sunday  morning. 

More  to  our  purpose  is  it  to  recognize  in  pass- 
ing the  widespread  youthful  depravity,  and  of  this 
we  shall  find  abundant  proof  as  we  go  on.  A 
coarse  and  brutal  age  registers  its  vices  in  the 
children.  As  the  Talmud  puts  it:  "What  the 
child  says  out  of  doors  he  has  learned  indoors." 

It  is  true  that  the  age  was  not  lacking — to 
reverse  a  well-known  epigram — in  the  excellencies 
of  its  defects.  Rude  it  certainly  was,  but  it  was 
not  soft ;  coarse  it  was,  and  also  strong.  The  Brit- 
ish people  prided  themselves  on  their  vigor.  Pro- 
tracted wars  had  indeed  impoverished  the  land 
and  robbed  the  fields  of  a  large  proportion  of  the 
tillers  of  the  soil,  but  it  should  be  acknowledged, 
as  one  among  the  few  helpful  symptoms  with 
which  the  century  opened,  that  poor  and  sordid  as 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  5  I 

were  the  conditions  of  large  masses  of  the  popula- 
tion of  England,  never  had  a  higher  value  been 
set  on  the  national  virtue  of  courage. 

Already  the  forces  were  gathering  which  would 
appeal  to  this  virtue  and  summon  it  to  a  nobler 
conflict  than  the  main  in  the  cock-pit  or  the  wrest- 
ling bout  on  the  village  green.  They  were  strong 
men  and  women  who  before  the  century  reached 
its  third  quarter  responded  to  the  passionate  ap- 
peals of  George  Whitefield  and  built  themselves 
into  the  society  organized  by  John  Wesley. 

The  spiritual  torpor  of  the  eighteenth  century 
was  effectually  broken  before  that  century  touched 
its  fiftieth  year.  Doddridge  had  written  his  "  Rise 
and  Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul";  Wesley 
had  made  the  Holy  Club  of  Oxford  a  spiritual 
force  in  the  community ;  Whitefield  had  joined 
two  continents  with  the  cry,  "O  Earth,  Earth, 
Earth,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord";  John  Newton 
had  yielded  his  sturdy  and  genial  heart  to  the 
service  of  Christ  and  his  church ;  and  in  New 
England,  Jonathan  Edwards,  combining  with  a 
metaphysical  acumen  still  peerless  in  its  force  an 
imagination  that  Dante  might  have  envied,  had 
flung  himself  into  the  religious  quickening  of  his 
parish  in  Northampton  and  started  a  train  of  con- 
sequences which  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  the 
evangelization  of  the  world.  The  practical  benevo- 
lence of    Robert   Raikes ;  the   missionary  zeal   of 


52  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

William  Carey;  the  philanthropy  of  Hannah  More; 
the  persuasive  eloquence  of  William  Wilberforce, 
consecrated  to  the  cause  of  freedom ;  and  the 
social  reform  of  Thomas  Chalmers,  in  which  he 
anticipated  so  much  of  the  work  to  which  the 
church  is  giving  itself  to-day,  all  these,  directly  or 
indirectly,  had  their  rise  in  the  first  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  When  the  sun  of  the  century 
sloped  toward  the  west  an  impulse  of  human  sym- 
pathy was  coming  to  be  its  chief  glory.  For  the 
prisoner  languishing  in  his  foul  cell,  for  the  lunatic 
in  his  fetters,  for  the  miserable  waif  in  the  work- 
house, and  the  hapless  climbing  boy  in  the  chim- 
ney, relief  was  at  hand.  "The  moral,  the  philan- 
thropic, the  religious  ideas  which  have  molded 
English  society  into  its  present  shape"  were  al- 
ready active.1  And  when  John  Wesley  wrote,  in 
1784,  "God  begins  his  work  in  children,"  he 
showed  where  the  emphasis  of  reformation  must 
be  laid.  The  Sunday-school  was  an  inevitable 
consequence  of  this  strong  impulse  of  human  sym- 
pathy which  throbbed  in  the  blood  of  the  country 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

The  evangelical  revival  of  the  same  period  can 
scarcely  be  separated  from  this  quickened  philan- 
thropy. The  one  was  the  works,  the  other  the 
faith    of    the   same    great    movement.      Mr.  John 

1  J.  R.  Green. 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  53 

Morley  says  that  "with  the  death  of  Cromwell  the 
brief  life  of  Puritan  theocracy  in  England  expired. 
It  was  a  phase  of  a  movement  that  left  an  inherit- 
ance of  some  noble  thoughts,  the  memory  of  a 
brave  struggle  for  human  freedom,  and  a  procession 
of  strong  and  capacious  master  spirits,  with  Milton 
and  Cromwell  at  their  head.  Political  ends  mis- 
carry and  the  revolutionary  leader  treads  a  path  of 
fire."  But  he  lights  up  the  gloom  of  this  apparent 
failure  of  a  great  experience  when  he  adds:  "It  is 
our  true  wisdom  to  learn  how  to  combine  sane  and 
equitable  historic  verdicts  with  a  just  value  for 
those  eternal  qualities  of  high  endeavor  on  which, 
amid  all  changes  of  fashion,  formula,  direction,  the 
world's  best  hopes  depend."  Without  any  doubt 
the  religious  revival  of  the  eighteenth  century  was 
a  return  to  Puritanism,  but  it  was  the  Puritanism 
of  the  Protestant  Reformation  rather  than  that  of 
Oliver  Cromwell.  "The  glorious  Reformation" 
was  one  theme  of  which  the  devout  members  of 
the  Established  Church  of  England  never  tired, 
and  Hannah  More  could  not  forgive  her  favorite 
protege,  Macaulay,  whose  studies  she  had  directed, 
because  in  the  pages  of  the  "  Edinburgh  Review" 
he  expressed  his  admiration  for  the  tenacious  vi- 
tality of  popery.  She  was  so  grieved  at  his  defec- 
tion that  she  changed  her  purpose  of  leaving  him 
her  library,  a  change  of  which  the  pain  was,  we 
fear,  greater  to  her  than  was  the  loss  to  him. 


54  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

When  we  speak  of  the  modern  Sunday-school  as 
the  child  of  the  eighteenth  century  we  must  not 
forget  the  good  work  of  earlier  years,  nor  when 
we  call  Robert  Raikes  its  founder  must  we  fail  to 
do  justice  to  those  who  preceded  him  in  the  enter- 
prise now  so  closely  associated  with  his  name. 
The  story  of  the  Sunday-school  movement  cannot 
be  fairly  told  unless  we  recognize  that  here,  as 
elsewhere, 

The  healing  of  the  world 

Is  in  God's  nameless  saints. 

Many  of  them  have  no  memorial  on  earth,  and 
many  more  are  barely  known.  An  accident  re- 
vealed the  fact,  for  instance,  that  some  years 
before  Raikes  began  his  work  in  Gloucester,  "  a 
quiet,  studious,  unobtrusive  Independent  min- 
ister"1 at  Nailsworth,  not  far  away,  was  in  the 
habit  of  teaching  the  children  of  his  congregation 
on  Sunday.  He  may  have  been  one  of  many  who 
established  and  maintained  schools  for  the  religious 
instruction  of  children  independent  of  the  move- 
ment started  by  Robert  Raikes.  Indeed,  two 
hundred  years  before  this  time,  Cardinal  Borro- 
meo  drew  upon  himself  the  hatred  of  the  monas- 
tic order  by  establishing  among  the  churches  of 
northern  Italy  a  number  of  Sunday-schools.  For 
teaching  poor  children  to  read  in  the  cathedral  of 

1  "  Robert  Raikes  :  The  Man  and  His  Work,"  Harris,  p.  138. 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  55 

Milan  he  was  charged  with  being  "  a  desecrator 
of  the  Sabbath,  the  sanctuary,  and  his  priesthood. 
His  Sunday-school  was  thought  to  be  a  dangerous 
innovation."  In  the  beautiful  parish  church  of  St. 
Mary  Magdalen,  in  the  west  of  England  town  of 
Taunton,  the  saintly  Joseph  Alleine  catechised 
and  instructed  children  in  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  There  is  no  pleasanter  picture 
than  that  which  shows  us  the  vicar  of  Catterick 
in  Yorkshire,  Theophilus  Lindsay,  just  a  hundred 
years  later,  getting  about  him  the  village  boys  on 
Sunday  afternoons  and  forming  them  into  a  large 
circle,  "himself  holding  a  Bible  open  in  his  hand, 
with  which  he  walked  slowly  around,  giving  it 
regularly  in  succession  to  the  boys,"  l  so  that  each 
read  the  book  in  his  turn  and  had  the  passage 
explained."  Mr.  Lindsay  subsequently  became  a 
'Unitarian,  and  a  monument  in  the  forecourt  of  the 
Unitarian  Chapel,  Essex  Street,  London,  associates 
his  name  with  the  names  of  Cardinal  Borromeo 
and  Robert  Raikes  as  the  "  originators  of  Sunday- 
schools." 

Among  the  friends  of  children,  and  the  most 
successful  workers  for  them,  we  should  certainly 
mention  Isaac  Watts,  whose  "  Divine  Songs  "  an- 
ticipated by  nearly  two  centuries  the  children's 
book  which  some  of  the  best  authors  of  the  present 

1  "  Robert  Raikes  and  Northamptonshire  Sunday-schools,"  p.  I. 


56         THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

day  have  given  us.  The  change  in  public  senti- 
ment in  this  matter  of  writing  for  children  may  be 
inferred  from  his  words  :  "  I  well  know  that  some 
of  my  friends  imagine  my  time  is  employed  in  too 
mean  a  service  while  I  write  for  babes  ;  but  I  con- 
tent myself  with  this  thought,  that  nothing  is  too 
mean  for  a  servant  of  Christ  to  engage  in  if  he  can 
thereby  most  effectually  promote  the  kingdom  of 
his  blessed  Maker." 

Probably  it  would  be  fair  to  claim  for  Robert 
Raikes  that  what  he  did  was  to  revive  and  organize 
the  work  of  instructing  children  in  the  truths  of  the 
Christian  religion.  This  work  had  never  entirely 
died  out.  The  catechism  is  almost  as  old  as  the 
church.  Its  value  in  the  estimation  of  the  clergy 
rose  or  declined  with  the  rise  or  decline  of  religion. 
Too  often  it  "  so  fell  into  disuse  that  when  prac- 
tised it  seemed  a  new  thing  and  pious  donors  gave 
legacies  for  its  perpetuation."  1 

The  Reformation  recognized  its  worth  and  in- 
sisted under  heavy  penalties  that  it  should  be 
maintained.  With  the  Puritans  it  "grew  into  a 
kind  of  domestic  inquisition,"  especially  in  Scot- 
land, and  many  among  the  Nonconformists  of 
England  continued  to  employ  it  as  the  medium 
for  the  religious  teaching  of  their  children.  When 
Robert  Raikes  writes  that  "  Providence  was  pleased 

1  Harris,  "  Robert  Raikes,"  p.  155. 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  ^7 

to  make  me  the  instrument  of  introducing  Sunday- 
schools,"  he  had  in  mind  the  schools  of  his  own 
system.  A  layman  himself,  he  took  the  work  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  clergy  to  the  extent  that 
henceforth  it  was  no  longer  doomed  to  depend  on 
their  faithfulness  for  being  done  or  to  lie  at  the 
mercy  of  their  negligence  for  being  left  undone. 

We  have  thus  far  been  tracing  the  causes  which 
led  to  the  establishment  of  Sunday-schools  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  a  century  which  before  it  was 
fifty  years  old  saw  the  stagnation  of  its  earlier 
period  finally  broken  up,  although  it  needed  all 
the  forces  which  the  evangelical  leaders  could 
muster  to  lift  Great  Britain  from  her  spiritual 
torpor  and  put  a  soul  behind  the  ribs  of  death. 
The  modern  Sunday-school  system,  however,  was 
not  to  originate  with  Methodism  or  with  the  clergy 
of  the  Established  Church  of  England.  In  com- 
mon with  other  great  philanthropic  enterprises,  it 
was  to  be  born  in  the  heart  of  a  layman  and  to 
number  among  its  earliest  advocates  men  and 
women  who  were  well  known  in  the  ranks  of  busi- 
ness, politics,  literature,  and  fashion.  Of  how 
much  service  this  was  to  the  movement  we  shall 
see  if  we  glance  at  some  of  the  prominent  figures 
in  the  early  history  of  Sunday-schools. 

By  common  consent  the  first  place  in  the  group 
belongs  to  Robert  Raikes,  who  was  born  in  the 
old    cathedral   city    of    Gloucester  in   1736,  lived 


58  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

there  all  his  life,  and  there  died  in  1811.  He 
came  of  good  Yorkshire  stock,  and  his  father,  who 
was  printer  and  publisher  of  the  "  Gloucester  Jour- 
nal," was  fearless  in  maintaining  the  liberty  of  the 
press  at  the  time  when  it  was  gagged  and  banned, 
and  high-minded  in  his  resolve  that  in  an  age  of 
moral  corruption  his  paper  should  be  kept  clean 
and  sweet.  Ability  and  integrity  had  their  reward, 
and  the  Raikes  family  has  not  ceased  to  boast  of 
its  number  of  men  of  mark  in  Church  and  State 
down  to  the  present  time.  At  twenty-one,  by  the 
death  of  his  father,  Robert  found  himself  sole  pro- 
prietor of  the  newspaper,  and  his  philanthropic 
spirit  can  be  detected  in  its  columns  from  the  time 
that  he  became  its  editor.  He  made  his  paper 
"a  means  of  communication  between  the  prisoners 
and  debtors,  whom  he  found  naked  and  starving 
and  rotting  in  the  jail."  l 

A  very  human  as  well  as  a  very  humane  person 
was  Robert  Raikes  ;  gay  and  genial  in  tempera- 
ment, with  a  certain  childlike  pleasure  in  his  own 
success  and  a  simplicity  of  mind  which  never  cul- 
tivated the  English  virtue  of  reserve.  He  was 
fastidious  in  his  tastes,  in  his  dislike  of  dirt  and 
disturbance,  in  his  shrinking  from  what  was  coarse 
and  rude.  Although  in  the  estimation  of  the 
cathedral  city,  where  social  lines  would  be  drawn 

1  Harris,  p.  103. 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  59 

strictly,  he  was  in  trade,  he  maintained  a  generous 
house,  had  a  handsome  service  of  plate,  and  took 
some  pride  in  saying,  "I  keep  no  shop."  The 
circumstance  which  led  to  his  interesting  himself 
in  the  depraved  and  neglected  children  of  Glouces- 
ter may  have  been  that  when  he  was  reading  proof 
in  his  office  he  was  "much  annoyed  by  children 
playing  under  his  very  nose."  And  if  this  offended 
his  taste,  his  moral  sense  was  still  more  shocked 
when  through  the  window  came  their  curses  as 
they  quarreled  and  fought  over  their  hop-scotch, 
five-stones,  and  chuck. 

Perhaps  to  moralize  was  a  characteristic  of  the 
age  in  which  he  lived,  but  the  moralizing  of  the 
eighteenth  century  too  often  ended  on  itself.  Not 
so  in  the  case  of  Raikes.  "  Ignorance,"  *  he  wrote, 
"is  the  root  of  the  degradation  everywhere  around 
us";  "idleness  is  a  consequence  of  ignorance"; 
"  prevention  is  better  than  cure  "  ;  "  religion  must 
wait  on  improved  education  among  the  masses 
before  we  shall  be  able  to  make  much  advance, 
but  religion  and  education  may  go  together."  A 
more  excellent  way  than  begging  in  the  columns 
of  his  newspaper  for  pence  for  starving  prisoners 
was  now  in  sight.  It  took  him  twenty  years  to 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  any  genuine  reforma- 
tion must  begin,  not  in  the  cells  of  the  Gloucester 

1  Harris,  p.  72. 


60  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

jails,  but  in  the  gutters  of  Gloucester  streets,  that 
even  his  Sunday-schools  were  not  sufficient,  but 
that  education  the  whole  week  through  must  be 
tried.  The  conclusion  once  reached  was  held  to 
tenaciously  to  the  end.  That  he  was  a  layman 
and  a  journalist  in  the  tide  of  public  affairs,  and 
given  to  regarding  them  as  a  citizen  rather  than  as 
an  ecclesiastic,  was  an  augury  for  good,  but  it  was 
fortunate  also  that  with  a  message  to  a  country  in 
which  Church  meant  the  national  establishment 
and  State  meant  the  government  of  King  George 
III.,  he  was  a  loyal  Episcopalian.  William  King, 
a  woolen  card-maker,  who  was  a  Dissenter  and  a 
follower  of  Whitefield,  talking  over  the  desecration 
of  the  Sabbath  with  him,  said  that  he  himself  had 
tried  to  open  a  Sunday-school  in  his  native  village, 
but  "that  from  multitude  of  business  through  the 
week  he  could  not  attend  to  it  as  he  wished."  "  It 
will  not  do  for  Dissenters,"  rejoined  Raikes,  "it 
must  be  from  the  Church."  He  was  attached  to 
his  sovereign,  lighted  bonfires  when  the  news  of 
British  victories  reached  the  office,  attended  with 
alacrity  the  mock  execution  of  Tom  Paine  (found 
guilty  of  treason  and  sentenced  as  an  outlaw),  and 
read  the  book  of  Revelation  and  the  Prophets  for 
references  to  the  politics  of  France  and  her  bewil- 
dered republic. 

When,  in  a  very  quiet  way,  he   started  his  first 
Sunday-school,  it  was  for  boys  only.      An  old  man 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  6 1 

who  lived  into  the  sixties  of  the  last  century  re- 
membered being  sent  to  a  Sunday-school  in  Sooty 
Alley,  opposite  the  City  Prison, — called  Sooty 
Alley  because  the  chimney  sweeps  lived  there, — 
and  while  he  did  not  recall  learning  anything,  his 
memory  carrying  him  back  over  eighty  years, 
testified  that  there  were  no  girls  in  the  school  and 
that  the  boys  were  "  turrible  bad."  This  was  in 
1780.  Within  three  years  the  young  savages  were 
brought  into  some  kind  of  order,  the  girls,  little 
better  at  first  than  they,  were  admitted,  and  when 
William  Wilberforce  was  brought  to  see  the  school 
the  boys  had  learned  to  bow  and  the  girls 
to  courtesy  when  strangers  entered  the  room. 
The  children  repeated  simple  prayers  and  the 
catechism,  and  answered  Bible  questions,  and 
sang  Doctor  Watts'  hymns.  When  Mr.  Raikes 
marched  his  children  to  church  every  Sunday 
their  clean  clothes  and  good  behavior  made  them 
conspicuous  in  the  congregation.  They  no  longer 
stuck  pins  into  one  another  during  service,  nor 
fought  and  swore  so  that  the  parish  beadle  had  to 
be  called  in  to  expel  them.  The  fastidious  Mr. 
Raikes,  whom  his  fellow-citizens  were  wont  to 
sneer  at  as  a  dandy,  sat  among  them  and  kept 
them  under  control  by  the  power  of  his  presence 
as  much  as  by  the  fear  of  his  rod. 

Closely    associated    with     Robert     Raikes    was 
Rev.   Thomas    Stock,  a   clergyman,  who  was  also 


62  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

headmaster  of  the  Gloucester  Cathedral  School. 
The  two  men  seem  to  have  met  by  accident  one 
day,  and,  comparing  notes,  the  one  with  an  expe- 
rience gathered  from  editing  his  paper  and  visiting 
the  jail,  the  other  with  an  experience  gained  in 
country  parishes  where  he  had  tried  to  teach  the 
children  their  catechism,  determined  that  some- 
thing must  be  done  to  reclaim  the  young  ruffians 
swarming  in  the  streets  around  them.  Stock  was 
a  man  of  gentler  spirit  than  Raikes,  with  his  tem- 
per under  better  control,  and  a  nature  patient  and 
yet  firm.1  It  is  said  that  the  rules  which  he  drew 
up  for  the  conduct  of  his  schools  gave  the  model 
for  those  adopted  later  by  the  Sunday-school  com- 
mittees. The  old  house  still  shown  in  St.  Catha- 
rine Street,  Gloucester,  although  it  has  been 
changed  somewhat  in  the  course  of  years,  is  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  it  was  when  "a  school  was 
established  in  it  by  the  joint  enterprise  of  Raikes 
and  Stock." 2  To  this  hour  the  house  goes  by 
the  name  of  "  Robert  Raikes'  first  Sunday-school." 
The  fact  that  Raikes  lived  in  a  dull  cathedral 
city,  hard  to  stir  to  any  enthusiasm  or  win  over  to 
any  new  methods,  makes  his  success  all  the  more 
remarkable.  But  it  also  accounts  for  the  com- 
parative indifference  with  which  for  a  long  time 
his  work  was  regarded,  as  well  as  for  the  feeling 

1  Harris,  p.  107.  2Ibid.,  p.  35. 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  63 

of  depression  against  which  even  his  gay  nature 
and  sanguine  temperament  were  not  always  proof. 
"  I  walk  alone,"  he  said.  "  It  seems  as  if  I  had 
discovered  a  new  country  where  no  adventurer 
chooses  to  follow."  But  this  was  far  from  being 
a  fair  statement  of  the  case.  Into  the  new  coun- 
try which  he  had  so  far  discovered  the  quickened 
evangelical  life  of  England  was  not  long  in  follow- 
ing him.  In  London,  Rowland  Hill,  the  minister 
of  Surrey  Chapel  and  one  of  the  most  original  of 
men,  in  the  foremost  rank  of  the  pulpit  orators 
of  his  time,  and  responsive  to  the  cry  of  humanity 
whenever  its  tones  reached  him,  began  a  Sunday- 
school  about  1784.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
in  the  schoolroom  of  his  chapel  the  Religious 
Tract  Society  was  formed  five  years  later,  and 
that  it  grew  out  of  the  demands  of  the  new  enter- 
prise. In  the  same  room  in  1803  the  Sunday- 
school  Union  was  inaugurated.1  Closely  connected 
with  these  movements  was  the  work  of  the  Rev. 
T.  Charles,  of  Bala,  who,  beginning  Sunday-schools 
in  Wales,  was  gladdened  by  a  wonderful  religious 
awakening  in  his  parish  and  the  whole  country- 
side, largely  attributable  to  the  Sunday-school 
instruction.  From  this  revival  sprang  the  call  for 
Welsh  Bibles,  and  it  was  when  he  made  his  way  to 
London,  and  before  his  colleagues   on   the  com- 

1  "Northamptonshire  Sunday-schools, "  p.  18. 


64  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

mittee  of  the  Religious  Tract  Society  pleaded  that 
a  society  should  be  formed  to  supply  the  Scriptures 
to  the  Welsh  people  in  their  own  tongue,  that 
Rev.  Joseph  Hughes,  secretary  of  the  Tract  So- 
ciety, uttered  the  memorable  words,  "  If  for  Wales, 
why  not  also  for  the  empire  and  the  world?"  from 
which  grew  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 
The  Sunday-school  was  a  parent  of  the  other  two 
societies,  in  the  same  way  as  demand  is  the  parent 
of  supply. 

What  Robert  Raikes  did  for  the  children  of  the 
city,  Hannah  More  did  for  the  children  of  the 
country.1  One  of  five  sisters,  daughters  of  a 
Suffolk  gentleman  of  damaged  fortune  but  high 
character,  who  became  the  head  master  of  a  school 
in  Gloucester,  Hannah  More  sat  on  her  father's 
knee  as  a  little  child  listening  to  the  poetry  of 
Virgil,  Horace,  and  Homer,  and  at  seventeen  had 
written  a  drama  to  be  acted  by  the  pupils  of  her 
sisters'  school  which  at  once  brought  her  into 
notice.  She  was  twenty-seven  when  she  paid  her 
first  visit  to  London.  Garrick,  who  had  met  with 
a  criticism  of  his  acting  from  her  pen,  introduced 
her  to  his  wife,  in  whom  she  found  her  most  inti- 
mate friend  ;  Reynolds,  the  greatest  living  English 
painter,  made  dinners  in  her  honor;  at  the  house 
of  Mrs.  Delaney  she  touched  a  former  generation 

1  Born  1745. 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  65 

when  she  shook  hands  with  Horace  Walpole ;  the 
bluestockings  of  London  welcomed  her  as  one  of 
themselves;  Edmund  Burke,  the  incomparable 
orator,  paid  her  compliments  as  sincere  as  they 
were  graceful ;  and  the  famous  Samuel  Johnson 
approached  her  in  his  most  affable  mood,  toying 
with  a  macaw  on  his  finger  and  reciting  a  verse 
from  a  hymn  which  she  had  composed.  Her 
sprightly  letters  remain  as  the  chronicle  of  her 
social  and  literary  triumphs.  As  we  read  them, 
however,  we  notice  their  tone  growing  more  seri- 
ous. Even  when  at  the  crest  of  the  wave  of 
fashion  she  had  craved  a  quiet  which  London 
could  not  give,  and  in  the  intoxicating  hour  when 
her  play  of  "Percy"  ran  neck  and  neck  with  "The 
School  for  Scandal"  in  the  race  for  popularity, 
"being  of  the  Christian  faction,"  she  firmly  de- 
clined all  invitations  to  Sunday  dinners  and  routs. 
The  death  of  Garrick  and  her  close  companionship 
with  his  widow  (whose  "domestic  chaplain"  Han- 
nah was  jocularly  called)  cut  her  aloof  from  the 
pleasures  of  the  town,  and  before  long  her  heart 
was  wholly  given  to  God.1  She  settled  at  Cowslip 
Green,  ten  miles  from  Bristol  and  ten  from  the 
romantic  Cheddar  Cliffs,  where  she  was  so  shocked 
at  the  condition  of  the  villagers  about  her  that 
she  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  I  have  devoted  the  rem- 

1  "Hannah  More's  Memoirs,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  400. 
E 


66         THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

nant  of  my  life  to  the  poor  and  those  that  have  no 
helper,  and  if  I  can  do  them  little  good  I  can  at 
least  sympathize  with  them,  and  I  know  it  is  some 
comfort  for  a  forlorn  creature  to  be  able  to  say, 
'There  is  something  that  cares  for  me.'"  From 
that  time  until  her  death,  at  eighty-eight  years  of 
age,  she  remained  constant  to  her  resolve.  To 
supply  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  needs  of  vil- 
lage children,  "  immersed  in  deplorable  ignorance 
and  depravity,"  she  opened  first  one  school  and 
then  another,  battling  with  the  prejudice  of  the 
farmers,  the  brutality  of  the  squires,  and  the  open 
or  concealed  opposition  of  the  parsons,  and  bringing 
to  bear  on  the  boors  of  Somersetshire  villages  all 
the  arts  of  coquetry  which  had  once  been  practised 
in  the  drawing  rooms  of  London.  "  Miss  Wilber- 
force,"  she  wrote  to  William  Wilberforce,  the  most 
fascinating  of  philanthropists,  who  shared  with 
herself  and  others  the  expenses  of  her  enterprise, 
"  would  have  been  shocked  had  she  seen  the  petty 
tyrants  whose  insolence  I  stroked  and  tamed,  the 
ugly  children  I  praised,  the  pointers  and  spaniels  I 
caressed,  the  cider  I  commended,  and  the  wine 
I  swallowed."  l  In  the  end  she  conquered.  The 
schools  were  rapidly  filled  with  boys  and  girls. 
The  teaching  in  the  class  on  Sunday  naturally 
paved  the  way  for  simple  services  for  older  people. 

1  "Memoirs,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  339. 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  67 

The  clergy  were  shamed  into  activity  and  found 
their  hands  again.  Her  house  at  Barley  Wood 
" became  a  Mecca  whither  pilgrims  of  all  sorts 
resorted  ;  not  the  leaders  of  the  evangelical  school 
alone,  but  many  others  came  to  listen  to  her  bril- 
liant conversation,  yield  to  her  enthusiastic  philan- 
thropy, and  own  that  here  was  a  religion  which 
was  as  cheerful  as  it  was  sincere  and  as  inspiring 
as  it  was  practical."1  It  is  easy  to  see  why  the 
Sunday-schools  of  Robert  Raikes  and  Hannah 
More  attracted  a  notice  which  might  have  been 
denied  to  the  school  of  the  clergyman  of  the 
parish  or  the  minister  of  the  dissenting  meeting- 
house. It  was  impossible  to  look  on  them  as 
simply  work  demanded  by  a  sense  of  duty.  The 
journalist  who  was  thoroughly  successful  in  his 
honorable  calling  and  the  literary  lion  who  for 
more  than  one  season  was  the  rage  of  London 
deliberately  devoted  their  lives  to  reaching  the 
children  of  city  slums  and  country  hamlets  with 
the  truths  of  the  gospel.  Evidently  religion  was 
no  profession  to  be  practised  by  the  clergy  only,  but 
rather  a  life  to  be  lived  out  by  every  true  follower 
of  Him  who  went  about  doing  good.  Business 
paused  to  watch  Robert  Raikes  as  he  marshaled 
his  waifs  into  church,  and  frivolity  grew  serious,  at 
least   for   a  moment,  as   the    irresistible   Hannah 

1  Overton,  "The  English  Church  in  the  Nineteenth  Century," 
p.  91. 


68  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

More  was  seen  ministering  to  the  plowboys  of 
Somersetshire.  This  was  religion  in  earnest.  It 
meant  something.  It  was  the  happy  fate  of  Han- 
nah More,  living  to  extreme  old  age,  "  to  see  the 
battle  against  vice  and  ignorance,  which  at  first 
she  waged  if  not  single-handed  at  any  rate  with 
the  support  of  a  very  few,  ultimately  carried  on 
by  a  large  and  formidable  army  in  all  parts  of  the 
country."  l  She  is  really  a  link  between  the 
chapter  in  the  history  of  Sunday-schools  which 
tells  the  story  of  their  birth  and  that  which  details 
the  story  of  their  progress.  At  the  immediate 
results  of  the  Sunday-school  enterprise  we  must 
now  glance  in  closing  this  part  of  our  subject. 

In  1780  the  Sunday-school  was  an  experiment. 
Within  five  years  it  was  an  assured  success.  The 
"  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  still  famous  in  the  his- 
tory of  literature  from  its  association  with  the 
early  struggles  of  Samuel  Johnson,  and  at  that 
time  the  most  influential  journal  in  Great  Britain, 
understands  that  "  the  establishment  of  Sunday- 
schools  (1784)  is  becoming  very  general."  To 
"the  truly  benevolent  Mr.  Raikes,"  it  informs  its 
readers,  "  it  is  incredible  with  what  rapidity  this 
grain  of  mustard  seed  is  extending  its  branches 
over  the  kingdom."  Raikes  estimated  the  num- 
ber of  children  under  Sunday  instruction  in  Eng- 

1  Overton,  p.  91. 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  69 

land  and  Wales  in  1780  at  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand;  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury  warmly  recom- 
mends the  schools;  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff  takes 
some  steps  toward  introducing  them  into  the  large 
towns  of  his  diocese;  the  Dean  of  Lincoln  be- 
lieves that  the  contemplation  of  criminal  England 
" would  be  a  gloomy  office  but  for  the  establish- 
ment of  Sunday-schools";  the  devoted  Fletcher, 
of  Madeley,  begins  six  schools  in  his  district,  and 
marks  not  only  moral  reformation  but  spiritual 
quickening  among  both  young  and  old.1 

In  America  the  growth  of  the  Sunday-school 
system  was  so  general  and  so  rapid  that  it  is  hard 
to  say  just  where  the  first  seed  was  sown.  A 
Sunday-school  was  organized  as  early  as  1780  in 
Virginia  under  the  directors  of  Bishop  Asbury ; 
in  1791  Philadelphia  saw  a  Sunday-school  society 
formed  to  secure  religious  instruction  for  poor 
children,  which  continues  active  still ;  in  the  same 
year  a  Sunday-school  was  started  in  Boston  ;  and 
two  years  after,  Kate  Ferguson,  a  Negro,  began 
one  in  New  York  ;  in  1797  the  first  Baptist  Sunday- 
school  was  begun  at  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,2  and  was 
modeled  upon  the  plan  of  the  Raikes'  schools  in 
England  ;  before  the  century  closed  the  Sunday- 
school  was  an  accepted  and  essential  agency  of 
any  progressive  church  ;  while  out  of  systematic 

1  "Johnson's  Cyclopaedia,"  art.  "Sunday-schools." 
2  "  A  Century  of  Baptist  Achievement,"  p.  236. 


yO  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

Sunday-school  movements  in  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  in 
Philadelphia,  in  New  York,  and  in  Boston,  grew  the 
American  Sunday-school  Union,  which  was  organ- 
ized in  1824.  The  first  Sunday-school  in  Canada 
would  seem  to  have  been  organized  by  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Smart,  a  young  pioneer  preacher,  at  Brook- 
ville,  in  the  year  181 1,  almost  immediately  on  his 
coming  to  America  from  England. 

Of  course  there  was  opposition.  The  bishops 
were  by  no  means  unanimous  in  their  approval, 
and  many  of  their  clergy  were  open  in  their  oppo- 
sition. The  alarmists  feared  that  "the  education 
of  the  poor  would  unfit  them  for  menial  service, 
raise  discontent,  and  foment  rebellion."  In  Scot- 
land a  prominent  Presbyterian  minister  declared 
that  while  Sunday-schools  might  be  needed  in 
England,  where  few  parents  in  common  life  were 
qualified  to  instruct  their  children  in  the  principles 
of  true  religion,  no  such  argument  held  good  in 
regard  to  his  native  country.  Sunday-schools  were 
"  reflections  on  every  parish  where  they  were  ap- 
pointed." Yet  this  was  the  very  country  in  which 
Thomas  Chalmers  before  long  unearthed  the  de- 
pravity of  Glasgow,  and  where  within  fifty  years 
Thomas  Guthrie,  plunging  into  the  reeking  wynds 
of  Edinburgh,  founded  ragged  schools.  The  Sun- 
day-school, however,  was  destined  to  conquer,  and 
in  1798  a  society  was  formed  in  Edinburgh  called 
"  The  Sabbath   Evening  School    Society,"  having 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  /I 

for  its  object  the  extension  of  the  system  to  the 
country  at  large.  In  the  north  of  Ireland  an  inde- 
pendent effort  on  behalf  of  the  neglected  children 
of  a  country  district  was  made  by  Doctor  Ken- 
nedy,1 curate  of  Bright  parish,  County  Down,  and 
out  of  a  singing  class  established  by  him  in  1774 
grew  a  school  held  regularly  every  Sunday  for  an 
hour  and  a  half  before  the  morning  service.  It 
was  not  until  eleven  years  later  that  he  learned  of 
the  work  of  Robert  Raikes  and  remodeled  his  own 
school  on  the  Gloucester  plan. 

The  moral  reformation  wrought  by  the  early 
Sunday-schools  was  matter  for  general  remark. 
"No  plan,"  wrote  Adam  Smith,  "has  promised  to 
effect  a  change  of  manner  with  equal  ease  since 
the  days  of  the  apostles."  2  Children  once  con- 
spicuous for  brutality  and  profaneness  became 
quiet  and  respectful  and  Sunday  revels  and  wakes 
were  suppressed.  Formerly  a  day  of  licentious 
idleness,  Sunday  was  now  in  hundreds  of  parishes 
a  day  of  public  worship.  Children  who  used  to  go 
about  begging  of  any  stranger  that  came  into  the 
village  now  went  to  church  and  behaved  well.  At 
Bolton,  as  the  children  sang  their  hymns,  John 
Wesley  thought  that  their  voices  could  not  be  ex- 
celled unless  it  might  be  by  "  the  singing  of  angels 
in  our  Father's  house."     As  they  grew  up  with  a 

1  Harris,  p.  181.  2  Ibid.,  p.  129. 


72  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

knowledge  of  reading,  the  young  farmers,  abandon- 
ing the  public  house,  took  to  reading,  and  used 
"  their  bacon  racks  in  the  double  capacity  of  book- 
cases." l  "  The  Sunday-schools  established  by  Mr. 
Raikes,"  says  Green,  "were  the  beginnings  of 
popular  education.  By  her  writings  and  by  her 
own  personal  example  Hannah  More  drew  the 
sympathy  of  England  to  the  poverty  and  crime  of 
the  agricultural  laborer."  It  is  not  claiming  too 
much  for  Robert  Raikes  and  Hannah  More  to  say 
that  by  their  devotion  to  the  children  of  the  poor 
in  city  and  country  they  prepared  the  way  for  the 
career  of  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  and  made  pos- 
sible the  reforms  in  the  treatment  of  the  boys  and 
girls  in  the  factory  and  on  the  farm  in  which  his 
great  name  is  embalmed. 

The  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  first,  saw  both  England 
and  America  stirred  to  a  new  passion  for  the 
Christian  life.  The  evangelical  awakening  which 
we  associate  with  the  consecrated  generalship  of 
Wesley,  the  pleadings  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  the 
apostolic  zeal  of  Whitefield,  the  missionary  enter- 
prise of  Carey,  found  in  the  Sunday-school  a  most 
fertile  field  for  prayer  sowing  and  joyful  reaping. 
George  III.  recognized  the  true  source  of  Eng- 
land's strength  when,  visiting  a  Sunday-school   at 

1  Harris,  pp.  79,  80. 


IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY  73 

Brentford,  he  uttered  the  wish  "  that  every  poor 
child  in  my  kingdom  should  be  taught  to  read  the 
Bible."  The  king  builded  better  than  he  knew 
when  he  said  this,  for  he  unconsciously  defined 
what  the  true  mission  of  the  Sunday-school  was  to 
be.  Following  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  earlier 
efforts  of  the  Sunday-school  in  England  and 
America  "  were  in  line  with  those  of  Robert 
Raikes  in  England,  religious  teaching  being  held 
secondary  to  secular  and  moral  instruction.  In 
proportion  as  secular  and  public  schools  were  pro- 
vided for  communities,  the  work  so  changed  that 
religious  teaching  became  the  dominant  purpose."  1 
In  the  Baptist  Sunday-school  at  Pawtucket,  to 
which  I  have  already  referred  as  organized  in 
1797,  it  was  not  until  eight  years  later  that  the 
distinctly  religious  features  were  introduced.2 
Slowly  the  Bible  came  to  its  own,  but  by  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  while  very  much 
remained  to  be  done, — as  indeed  much  remains 
to  be  done  still, — it  was  generally  recognized  that 
the  Sunday-school  was  not  a  means  of  moral 
reformation  alone,  but  more  and  also  better.  It 
was  a  medium  for  distinctively  Christian  teaching, 
fairly  to  be  included  in  the  Commission  of  its 
Divine  Founder:  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature." 

1  Dr.  C.  R.  Blackall. 
2  "  A  Century  of  Baptist  Achievement,"  p.  236. 


Ill 


THE  MODERN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  IN  THE 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


The  decline  of  Sunday-schools  with  the  opening  century. 
Causes  in  England.  Secular  education.  Political  condi- 
tions. Growth  of  cities  and  increase  of  child  labor.  Inade- 
quate organization.  The  revived  interest  in  Sunday-schools 
due  (i)  to  better  organization  ;  Sunday-school  Unions  ; 
statistics  of  growth,  Great  Britain  and  America  ;  (2)  to  better 
teaching  ;  the  catechism  ;  the  use  of  the  Bible  ;  the  Inter- 
national Lesson  Series. 


Ill 


THE  MODERN    SUNDAY-SCHOOL  IN    THE    NINETEENTH 
CENTURY 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  early  days  of 
the  Sunday-school  movement  there  was,  in  England 
certainly,  a  necessity  for  better  secular  teaching. 
How  to  read  and  write  and  even  to  cypher  the 
scholar  needed  to  learn  before  he  could  with  any 
measure  of  intelligence  study  the  Bible.  In  the 
estimation  of  Robert  Raikes  ignorance  was  the 
root  of  the  degradation  which  he  found  everywhere 
around  him.  Even  religion  itself,  said  he.  had  "to 
wait  on  improved  education."  Simultaneously, 
about  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  two 
men  became  interested  in  popular  education,  and, 
I  had  almost  said,  stumbled  on  a  plan  of  employ- 
ing the  elder  scholars  to  teach  the  younger.  This 
plan  lay  at  the  foundation  of  the  systems  with 
which  their  names  are  associated.  These  two 
men  were  Dr.  Andrew  Bell  and  Joseph  Lancaster.1 
When  a  chaplain  at  Madras,  Doctor  Bell  happened 
in  an  early  morning  ride  to  pass  by  a  Malabar 
school  where  he  saw  a  number  of  children  seated 

1  Overton,  p.  236,  et  seq. 

77 


yS  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

on  the  ground  writing  with  their  fingers  on  the 
sand.  It  suggested  itself  to  him  that  the  older 
scholars  in  the  British  Military  Orphan  Asylum 
could  under  his  care  teach  the  younger  ones  their 
letters  in  this  primitive  way.  Out  of  this  sprang 
the  pupil-teacher  system.  A  few  years  later  a 
poor  Quaker  lad,  barely  twenty  years  of  age, 
named  Joseph  Lancaster,  obtained  from  his  father 
the  use  of  a  room  in  the  Borough  Road,  in  London, 
in  which  he  might  keep  a  cheap  school  for  the 
poor  in  the  neighborhood.  To  this  school  scholars 
came  in  abundance,  but  money  did  not.  He  could 
not  afford  to  pay  an  assistant,  and  so  was  "com- 
pelled to  make  use  of  the  services  of  his  pupils  to 
teach  each  other  as  monitors,  and  this  practice, 
the  sheer  offspring  of  necessity,  ended  in  the 
demonstration  and  definition  of  the  power  of  one 
master  to  teach  hundreds."  Doctor  Bell  was  an 
Episcopalian,  and  held  that  the  national  religion 
must  be  the  foundation  of  national  education. 
The  parochial  system  was  ready  to  his  hand,  and 
so,  under  the  "National  Society,"  "national 
schools  "  were  planted  or  revived  in  the  parishes 
of  England.  Joseph  Lancaster  was  a  Quaker,  and 
believed  that  secular  education,  while  it  was  not 
to  be  irreligious,  should  be  strictly  undenomina- 
tional. Out  of  this  conviction  came  the  "  British 
and  Foreign  School  Society,"  with  its  widespread 
network  of  British  schools.     I  glance  at  the  for- 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  79 

gotten  controversy  as  to  the  priority  of  Bell  or 
Lancaster  only  to  call  attention  to  its  influence 
on  Sunday-schools.  Undoubtedly  the  revived  in- 
terest in  national  education  hastened  the  settle- 
ment of  the  moot  question  whether  the  combina- 
tion of  secular  with  religious  instruction  in  the 
Sunday-school  needed  to  be  any  longer  continued. 
But  another  result  was  that  the  growth  of  the 
spirit  of  nonconformity  led  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  children  of  parents  who  were  dissenters  ought 
to  be  at  liberty  to  go  to  their  own  places  of  wor- 
ship, instead  of  being  marched,  as  in  the  time  of 
Robert  Raikes  and  Hannah  More,  to  the  parish 
church.  This  was  the  arrangement  which  Joseph 
Lancaster  made  in  his  schools.  Plainly  the  lines 
between  conformity  and  nonconformity  to  the  Es- 
tablished Church  were  to  be  tightly  drawn  in  the 
matter  of  both  sacred  and  secular  schooling. 
When  the  nineteenth  century  began,  Sunday- 
schools  were  slowly  feeling  their  way  to  their  true 
vocation.  It  was  only  twenty  years  since  the  first 
school  was  opened  by  Raikes  in  Gloucester.  The 
prospering  gale  was  not  yet  filling  out  the  canvas 
of  the  good  ship,  and  at  times  her  sails  flapped 
ominously  in  the  wind.  The  early  years  of  the 
new  century  were  indeed  in  many  directions  years 
not  of  progress,  but  of  decline.  In  America,  ac- 
cording to  Dr.  H.  Clay  Trumbull,  "  Bible  study 
and  Bible  teaching  were  at  a  lower  ebb  than  at 


80  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUN  DAY-SCHOOL 

any  earlier  period." l  In  Great  Britain,  neither 
Church  nor  State  was  clear  in  its  mind  as  to  what 
this  innovation,  with  its  strong  infusion  of  the  lay 
and  voluntary  elements,  portended.  The  French 
Revolution  had  outraged  the  conservative  preju- 
dices, which  the  country  gentlemen  of  England  mis- 
took for  principles,  and  strengthened  the  conviction 
that  the  masses  of  the  people  could  only  be  kept 
quiet  by  being  kept  ignorant.  Sunday-schools 
were  or  would  be  "  nurseries  of  Jacobinism."  Even 
a  bishop  of  intelligence  so  far  violated  the  usual 
episcopal  caution  as  to  declare  of  some  of  the 
schools  held  in  connection  with  the  conventicles 
of  the  dissenters  that  there  was  much  ground  for 
suspicion  "  that  sedition  and  atheism  are  the  real 
objects  of  these  institutions."  "  Indeed,"  he  added 
with  unpardonable  vagueness,  "  in  some  places  this 
is  known  to  be  the  case."  This  alarm  was  neither 
widespread  nor  long-lived.  The  cure  for  it,  as  that 
same  bishop  pointed  out,  was  for  the  clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England  to  promote  the  establishment 
of  Sunday-schools  in  their  parishes.  As  a  rule 
the  clergy  took  this  advice,  and  "  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  nineteenth  century  the  Sunday-school 
had  become  a  part  of  the  regular  organization  of 
almost  every  well-worked  parish."  2 

A    more    powerful    reason    for    the    temporary 

1  Harris,  p.  220.  2  Overton,  p.  245. 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  8 1 

eclipse  in  the  progress  of  Sunday-schools  in  the 
Old  Country  is  to  be  found  in  the  decline  of  the 
evangelical  party.  It  was  still  indeed  the  strong- 
est party  in  the  national  church,  and  remained  so 
for  twenty-five  years  more,  but  its  leaders  were 
passing  away,  and  the  fervor  of  its  first  zeal  was 
dying  out.  We  need  also  to  remember  that  the 
Sunday-school  was  not  at  this  time  a  purely  volun- 
tary system.  Teachers  were  still  paid  in  many 
instances.  The  need  for  secular  instruction  was 
still  recognized.  The  Board  school,  now  almost 
universal  in  England,  with  its  improved  methods 
of  teaching,  came  nearer  to  the  sunset  than  to  the 
dawn  of  the  century.  The  Sunday-school  was  not 
as  yet  so  entirely  religious  as  to  appeal  to  the 
passion  for  souls,  which  was  the  distinguishing 
feature  of  the  evangelical  revival,  a  passion  which 
held  its  own  even  when  the  revival  was  treasured 
among  the  traditions  of  a  great  past.  Nor  had 
that  revival  laid  hold  on  the  mass  of  the  clergy, 
otherwise  than  to  either  shame  or  stimulate  them 
into  a  life  somewhat  worthier  of  their  sacred  call- 
ing and  less  indifferent  to  their  ordination  vows. 
The  clergyman  of  that  time  was  no  longer  the 
clergyman  of  Fielding's  novels,  but  neither  was  he 
the  minister  of  Paul's  letter  to  Titus.1  "He 
farmed  his  own  glebe,"  says  Froude,  "kept  horses, 


1  Overton,  p.  16. 
F 


82  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

shot  and  hunted  moderately,  and  mixed  in  general 
society.  His  wife  and  daughters  looked  after  the 
poor  and  taught  in  the  Sunday-school."  The  de- 
cline in  the  first  enthusiasm  for  Sunday-schools 
was  only  one  symptom  of  the  decline  in  evangeli- 
cal religion,  or,  as  perhaps  it  would  be  fairer  to  put 
it,  in  the  failure  of  evangelical  religion  to  over- 
come the  inertness  of  the  long  years  of  spiritual 
lethargy  and  unfaithfulness.1  The  Sunday-school 
had  not,  so  far,  found  its  feet.  It  had  not  defined 
the  path  which  it  was  hereafter  to  pursue. 

What  has  just  been  said  of  the  Sunday-school  is 
also  true  of  Great  Britain  at  large.  She  had  the 
excellence  of  "the  giant's  strength,"  but  too  often 
she  used  it  tyrannously,  "  like  a  giant."  She  had 
not  yet  learned  how  to  control  her  own  resources. 
The  development  of  machinery  and  the  application 
of  the  power  of  steam  had  given  an  immense 
impulse  to  her  manufactories,  and — what  we  need 
to  notice  for  the  bearing  it  has  upon  our  subject — 
the  great  centers  where  these  manufactories  were 
being  carried  on  "  became  studded  with  vast  mills 
surrounded  by  a  densely  crowded  population,  and 
a  demand  for  the  labor  of  women  and  children 
had  been  created  which  gave  rise  to  frightful 
abuses  and  cruelties."  2  The  village  life  of  Eng- 
land was  no  longer  the  country's  chief  pride.     The 

1  Overton,  p.  5. 
2  Hodder,  "The  Seventh  Earl  of  Shaftesbury, "  p.  20. 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  83 

population  of  the  kingdom  was  increasing  by 
gigantic  strides,  and  that  population  was  centering, 
a  black  ominous  mass,  in  the  manufacturing  towns. 
To  meet  this  changed  condition  of  things,  neither 
the  government  nor  the  church  was  ready.  To 
quote  the  biographer  of  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  : 

There  were  no  efficient  educational  laws  in  existence  ; 
industrial  schools,  mechanics'  institutes,  workingmen's 
clubs  were  unknown  ;  the  poor  laws  were  pauperizing  and 
degrading  ;  the  science  of  sanitation,  a  free  newspaper 
press,  limited  liability,  employers'  liability,  all  these  had 
yet  to  be.  The  church  was  in  a  state  of  lethargy,  and  the 
vast  machinery  of  philanthropy,  with  which  we  have  been 
familiar  since  the  beginning  of  the  second  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  was  only  in  its  infancy.1 

The  increased  demand  for  child  labor  would 
naturally  affect  the  Sunday-school.  In  common 
with  every  humane  enterprise,  if  not  blocked  by 
the  greed  of  the  manufacturer  it  would  be  chilled 
by  the  indifference  of  an  age  to  which,  as  never 
before,  material  issues  were  appealing.  For  nearly 
half  a  century  this  condition  of  things  was  to  con- 
tinue, until  Lord  Ashley  (afterward  Earl  of  Shaftes- 
bury) gave  a  voice  to  the  people,  appealing  on 
behalf  of  humanity  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion. 
"We  ask,"  he  cried,  in  bringing  in  his  "  Bill  for 
the  Regulation  of  Labor  in  Factories,"  "  but  a 
slight  relaxation  of  toil,  a  time  to  live  and  a  time 

1  Hodder,  pp.  114,  115. 


84         THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

to  die;  a  time  for  those  comforts  that  sweeten  life 
and  a  time  for  those  duties  that  adorn  it."  *  Eng- 
land, outside  of  Parliament,  was  more  ready  to 
respond  to  the  dumb  appeal  of  the  overworked 
and  underfed  millions  of  her  population  than  were 
her  rulers  ;  but  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  taken  aback 
when  to  his  sarcastic  inquiry  whether  the  House 
of  Commons  was  prepared  to  "  legislate  for  all 
these  people,"  and  for  restriction  of  hours  of  labor 
in  agriculture,  the  House  broke  out  in  a  tremen- 
dous cheer.  Now  this  battle  for  the  people  was 
also  the  battle  for  the  Sunday-school. 

Undoubtedly  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the 
healthful  growth  of  Sunday-schools  a  hundred 
years  ago  was  lack  of  system.  The  experimental 
period  had  not  yet  been  passed.  There  was  no 
large  combination  of  Sunday-school  workers  for 
general  conference  and  united  action.  Just  as  the 
first  carriages  which  ran  by  steam  were  modeled 
on  the  unmeaning  lines  of  the  ancient  stagecoach, 
so  the  first  Sunday-schools  were  modeled  on  the 
lines  of  the  day-schools.  The  teachers  in  the 
schools  which  Raikes  began  in  Gloucester  and 
Hannah  More  in  Cheddar  were  all  paid.  At  a 
Sunday-school  anniversary  in  Northamptonshire,  in 
1789,  we  find  that,  "  in  addition  to  the  one  or  two 
shillings,  or  even  more,  received  as  wages,  '  rewards 

1  Hodder,  p.  23- 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  85 

for  diligence'  were  bestowed  upon  the  teachers."  l 
The  unpaid  teacher,  in  common  with  the  lay 
preacher,  seems  to  be  a  fruit  of  early  Methodism. 
A  number  of  Wesleyan  office  bearers  were  lament- 
ing their  inability  to  hire  teachers  for  want  of 
funds,  when  one  of  them,  bolder  than  the  rest, 
said,  "  Let  us  do  the  work  ourselves."  Then,  and 
not  before,  the  work  got  done.  As  early  as  1785 
Wesley  records  that  there  were  teachers  in  his 
schools  who  gave  their  services  gratuitously.  The 
Sunday-school  " treat"  of  to-day  is  probably  a  sur- 
vival of  the  time  when  boys  and  girls  had  to  be 
lured  to  school  by  pious  bribes.  Presents  of 
clothes  were  made  to  scholars  in  the  days  of 
Raikes  :  "  Straw  hats  and  blue  bands,"  in  one 
instance,  "  to  all  the  girls  ;  black  hats  and  blue 
bands  to  all  the  boys."  By  his  will  Robert  Raikes 
directed  that  "his  Sunday  scholars  should  follow 
his  remains  to  the  grave,  each  receiving  a  shilling 
and  a  plum  cake."  The  remembrance  of  these 
funeral  baked  meats  lingered  in  the  mind  of  at  least 
one  of  these  scholars,  Mrs.  Summerhill,  until 
1880.  "On  his  next  birthday  after  the  funeral," 
she  added,  "we  all  went  to  a  house  in  Bolt  Lane 
and  had  a  good  dinner  of  roast  beef  and  plum  pud- 
ding." Writing  half  a  century  since,  the  late 
Hugh  Stowell  Brown,  of  Liverpool,  says:  "It  is 

1  "Northamptonshire  Schools,"  pp.  15,  16. 


86  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

curiously  illustrative  of  the  change  of  customs, 
that  in  our  first  Sunday-school  treats,  more  than 
forty  years  ago,  the  children  were  regaled  with 
cake  and  wine."  Very  slowly  the  conception  of 
the  Sunday-school  as  an  institution  formed  on  the 
model  of  the  day-school,  with  rewards  and  treats 
thrown  in  to  attract  where  attendance  could  not 
be  peremptorily  enforced,  died  out.  Between  its 
disappearance  and  the  general  acceptance  of  the 
modern  idea  of  a  purely  voluntary  institution,  in 
which  love  was  lure  enough,  there  was  a  time 
when  the  Sunday-school  declined.  In  the  city  of 
Gloucester,  for  example,  the  cradle  of  the  Sunday- 
school,  and  ten  years  before  the  death  of  Robert 
Raikes,  unpaid  teaching  was  made  general,  but 
not  before  the  old  system  had  shown  ominous 
signs  of  decrepitude.1  Six  young  men,  lamenting 
the  decline  of  Sunday-schools  in  the  city,  banded 
themselves  together  with  the  determination  to 
revive  them.  All  their  efforts  were  in  vain,  until, 
having  resolved  to  do  the  work  themselves,  "  gath- 
ering one  night,  after  business  hours,  around  a 
post  at  the  corner  of  a  lane,  within  twenty  yards  of 
the  spot  where  Bishop  Hooper  was  martyred,  they 
clasped  each  other  by  the  hand,  and  with  rever- 
ently uncovered  heads  resolved  that,  come  what 
would,    Sunday-schools    in   Gloucester    should    be 

1  "Northamptonshire  Schools,"  p.  17. 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  87 

re-established.  As  a  fund  to  start  with  they  sub- 
scribed a  half-crown  each,  and  then  dividing  the 
city  into  districts,  they  canvassed  it  for  scholars. 
On  the  following  Sunday  upward  of  one  hundred 
children  attended,  and  from  that  time  forward  the 
work  prospered." 

The  revival  of  Sunday-schools  after  the  setback 
in  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  seems 
to  be  chiefly  due  to  general  organization  and  to 
better  methods  of  teaching. 

The  British  Sunday-school  Union  dates  from 
1803,  and  grew  out  of  a  weekly  meeting  of  active 
teachers  who,  grappling  with  the  needs  of  London, 
"found  reason  to  lament  the  want  of  plan  and 
order,  and  desired  some  means  by  which  the  neg- 
lected districts  might  be  supplied  with  schools 
and  young  persons  of  suitable  dispositions  be  in- 
duced to  undertake  the  work."1  A  union  "de- 
signed to  consist  of  teachers  and  others  actively 
engaged  in  some  Protestant  Sunday-school  "  was 
formed.  From  London  it  spread  over  the  whole 
country.  In  1824,  to  guarantee  the  Christian 
character  of  the  institution,  a  doctrinal  limitation 
was  resolved  upon,  as  twelve  years  earlier  the 
schools  connected  with  the  union  had  been  recom- 
mended not  to  teach  reading,  writing,  and  spelling 
in  their  classes  on  Sunday,  "the  same  being  con- 
ic/: W.  H.  Watson,  "The  Sunday-school  Union." 


88  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

sidered  as  a  breach  of  the  sanctity  of  that  day."  * 
The  earlier  publications  of  the  Union,  however, 
virtually  acknowledged  the  general  lack  of  a  com- 
mon school  training  by  furnishing  more  than  one 
"Introduction  to  Reading." 

After  nine  years  of  quiet  growth  the  union 
"made  its  proceedings  more  public"  by  inviting 
the  teachers  and  friends  of  Sunday-schools  to  a 
breakfast  at  the  New  London  Tavern.  This  essen- 
tially British  function,  worthy  of  a  robust  people, 
became  so  popular  that  although  the  hour  of  the 
meal  was  placed  at  six  o'clock,  by  1832  the  attend- 
ance exceeded  one  thousand  two  hundred,  and  an 
attempt  was  made  (happily  without  success)  to  ex- 
clude ladies.  The  first  Sunday-school  "  Notes  "  seem 
to  have  been  published  in  "The  Teachers'  Maga- 
zine" in  1841,  and  as  early  as  1816  a  hymn  book 
for  teachers  was  issued,  followed  six  years  later  by 
one  for  the  use  of  scholars.  The  Sunday-school 
Union  celebrated  the  jubilee  of  Sunday-schools  on 
the  14th  of  September,  1831,  the  anniversary  of 
Robert  Raikes'  birthday,  and  in  July,  1852,  with 
the  commencement  of  the  fiftieth  year  of  its  exist- 
ence, its  own  jubilee  was  commemorated  by  public 
meetings  in  London  (including  the  inevitable  break- 
fast), and  by  starting  a  fund  to  put  up  a  Jubilee 
Memorial  Building,  which  was  completed  in  1856. 

1  Watson,  p.  iq. 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  89 

The  first  general  Sunday-school  Convention  grew 
out  of  a  conference  of  evangelical  Christians  of  all 
nations  held  at  Geneva  in  1861.  It  gathered  in 
London  in  September,  1862,  at  the  time  of  the 
International  Exhibition,  and  among  the  speakers 
from  abroad  was  Mr.  Albert  Woodruff,  of  New 
York,  who  had  devoted  himself  to  Sunday-school 
work  in  France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  and  Rev.  J. 
H.  Vincent,  of  Illinois,  whose  name  is  now  united 
with  that  of  Mr.  B.  F.  Jacobs  as  prominent  in  the 
annals  of  American  Sunday-schools. 

In  America,  as  in  Great  Britain,  there  were, 
very  early  in  the  history  of  Sunday-schools,  unions 
of  teachers  for  purposes  of  fellowship  and  study. 
The  century,  as  we  have  seen,  opened  with  Bible 
study  and  Bible  teaching  at  a  lower  ebb  than  at 
any  earlier  period.  It  was  the  Sunday-school 
wisely  and  intelligently  organized  that  raised  the 
standard  of  Christianity  in  New  England  and  the 
South,  and  by  and  by,  as  the  chief  agency  of 
evangelization,  in  the  newer  portions  of  the  United 
States.  "The  Society  of  Sunday-schools"  in  the 
England  of  Hannah  More's  time  found  a  parallel 
in  systematic  movements  in  Pittsburg,  in  1809,  and 
in  New  York  five  years  later,  and  then  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  so  on  through  other  cities.  Out  of 
these  grew  "The  American  Sunday-school  Union," 
which  dates,  as  we  have  already  seen,  from  1824. 
One  distinction   between    English   and   American 


90         THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

Sunday-schools  seems  to  have  been  the  greater  use 
made  in  this  country  of  denominational  as  distin- 
guished from  union  methods.  For  instance,  in 
the  annual  report  of  "The  Baptist  Tract  Society," 
in  1830,  a  suggestion  was  made  that  "the  time 
may  come  when  the  number  of  schools  in  our 
denomination  will  be  so  great  as  to  require  the 
Baptist  Tract  Society  to  publish  a  series  of  Sab- 
bath-school books  suited  to  their  needs." l  The 
Tract  Society  changed  its  name  to  "  The  American 
Baptist  Publication  and  Sunday-school  Society," 
and  in  the  end,  under  the  less  cumbrous  title  of 
"The  American  Baptist  Publication  Society,"  came 
to  be  generally  recognized  "as  the  specific  denomi- 
national Sunday-school  organization."  It  would 
be  idle  for  us  to  discuss  in  this  place  the  relative 
advantage  of  unionism  and  denominationalism  in 
Sunday-school  work.  The  evangelical  Sunday- 
schools  of  America  are  practically  one,  as  are  the 
evangelical  churches.  But  nothing  is  gained  to 
the  whole  by  the  sacrifice  or  surrender  of  what  is 
peculiar  to  each.  The  present  growth  of  Sunday- 
schools,  not  in  numbers  only  or  chiefly,  but  also 
in  efficiency  and  intelligence,  is  the  best  answer  to 
those  who  at  the  prompting  of  a  laudable  senti- 
ment would  urge  any  widespread  union  inde- 
pendent of  denominational  lines.     For  all  practical 

1  "A  Century  of  Baptist  Achievement,"  pp.  236,  237. 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  9 1 

purposes  the  individual  Sunday-school  does  better 
as  the  child  of  the  individual  church,  under  her 
wing,  and  subject  to  her  control. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  movement  little  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  statistics,  and  one  aim  of  the 
unions  when  they  were  formed  was  to  remedy  this 
lack.  But  the  growth  of  Sunday-schools  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales  was  evidently  rapid  after  the  torpor 
of  the  first  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  had 
been  broken.1  In  1818  four  per  cent,  of  the  popu- 
lation were  in  school,  and  the  total  of  scholars  was 
four  hundred  and  seventy-seven  thousand,  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five;  in  1833  the  percentage  was 
eleven  ;  in  185  1  it  was  thirteen  and  five-tenths;  in 
1880  fifteen,  and  in  1887  it  had  risen  to  twenty 
per  cent,  of  the  population,  and  there  are  reported 
six  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  forty-one  teachers,  and  five  million  seven 
hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  scholars.  In  the  United 
States  more  attention  would  seem  to  have  been 
given  to  statistics  when  once  the  practice  of  get- 
ting them  had  been  begun.  In  1875  there  were 
sixty-four  thousand  eight  hundred  and  seventy- 
one  schools,  seven  hundred  and  fifty-three  thousand 
and  sixty  teachers,  and  five  million  seven  hundred 
and  ninety  thousand  six  hundred  and  eighty-three 


Gulick,  "The  Growth  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,"  p.  104. 


92  THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

scholars.  In  1896  there  were  one  hundred  and 
thirty-two  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty-nine 
schools,  one  million  three  hundred  and  ninety-six 
thousand  five  hundred  and  eight  teachers,  and 
ten  million  eight  hundred  and  ninety  thousand  and 
ninety-two  scholars,  and  at  the  World's  Sunday- 
school  Convention,  held  in  London  in  1889,1  it  was 
announced  that  about  one-sixth  of  the  population 
of  the  United  States  were  in  Sunday-schools, 
while  the  returns  of  1899  give  the  total  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  thousand  one  hundred 
and  eighty  schools,  one  million  four  hundred  and 
thirteen  thousand  nine  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
officers  and  teachers,  and  eleven  million  four  hun- 
dred and  ninety-seven  thousand  three  hundred 
and  twenty-eight  scholars.  In  Canada,  taking  the 
country  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  we  find 
ten  thousand  one  hundred  and  seventy-four  schools, 
seventy-nine  thousand  five  hundred  officers  and 
teachers,  and  a  total  of  scholars  amounting  to  six 
hundred  and  fifty-seven  thousand  four  hundred 
and  forty-two. 

More  than  once  attention  has  been  called  to  the 
fact  that  the  growth  of  intelligence,  the  wider 
education,  and  the  better  kind  of  teaching  in  the 
public  schools,  ran  side  by  side  with  the  spread  of 
Sunday-schools  and  their  general  improvement  in 

1  "World's  Sunday-school  Convention  Report,  1889,"  p.  79. 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  93 

methods  and  in  organization.  The  harmony  be- 
tween education  and  religion  is  nowhere  more 
apparent  than  in  the  United  States.  The  Sunday- 
schools  have  the  brightest  young  life  of  the  coun- 
try in  their  classes  as  teachers  or  scholars.  The 
growth  of  Sunday-schools  has  been  simultaneous 
with  the  growth  of  religion  in  the  schools  and  col- 
leges. A  hundred  years  ago  there  were  only  three 
professed  Christians  in  Yale  College ;  to-day,  out 
of  one  thousand  four  hundred  recent  graduates  of 
Harvard,  only  two  declared  themselves  to  be  un- 
believers. "  Never  before  were  there  so  many 
evangelical  church-members  among  the  students 
of  that  institution.  The  Intercollegiate  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  is  the  largest  college 
organization  in  the  world.  *  No  fraternity,  no  ath- 
letic organization,  compares  with  it  in  size.'  "! 

It  is  when  we  pass  on  to  consider  the  character 
of  the  teaching  in  the  Sunday-school  that  we 
understand  how  vast  was  the  growth  made  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  When  Robert  Raikes  began 
his  work,  few  of  the  children  gathering  in  his 
schools  could  read.  The  Horn-book  was  the  poor 
substitute  in  old  England  for  the  New  England 
Primer  across  the  Atlantic.  It  consisted  of  "  a 
single  page  upon  which  the  alphabet  and  a  few 

1  Gulick,  p.  154  (1897).  For  details  of  Sunday-school  progress 
on  the  continent  of  Europe,  see  "The  Day,  the  Book,  and  the 
Teacher,"  by  E.  Paxton  Hood,  Chap.  XI. 


94  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

short  words  were  printed.1  This  was  pasted  upon 
a  small  piece  of  board  with  a  handle,  and  the 
printed  matter  was  covered  with  transparent  horn, 
so  that  the  fingers  of  the  young  reader,  probably 
seldom  very  clean,  should  not  obliterate  the  let- 
ters." It  was  no  doubt  because  education  was  in 
so  backward  a  condition  in  England  that  the 
catechism,  which  relied  chiefly  on  the  memory, 
was  so  generally  used.  As  we  have  seen,  it  was 
necessary  for  the  Sunday-school  to  do  what  the 
day-school  had  failed  to  do.  A  scholar  in  the 
early  part  of  the  century  recalls  how  "  we  had 
long,  narrow  trays,  filled  with  sand,  in  which  with 
our  forefingers  we  used  to  trace  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet.  Then  came  what  were  called  *  battle- 
dores,' thin  pieces  of  wood,  having  printed  on  each 
side  words  of  two  or  three  syllables.  The  next 
stage  was  a  spelling-book,  and  so  on  to  catechisms 
and  long  passages  of  Scripture  and  hymns,  to  be 
learned  during  the  week  and  repeated  to  the 
teacher  on  Sunday."2  "After  morning  church," 
says  one  of  the  scholars,  "  Mr.  Raikes  used  to 
hear  us  all  say  the  Collect  for  the  day,  and  who- 
ever said  it  best  had  a  penny.  In  school  the 
Bible  and  the  catechism  were  taught  us."  Faith 
in  a  catechism  was  very  general,  and  still  remains 
so,  although   the  entirely  satisfactory  catechism  is 

1  E.  P.  Hood,  p.  9. 
2  "Northamptonshire  Sunday-schools,"  p.  15. 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  95 

yet  an  unfulfilled  prophecy.  Others  besides  Dr.  J. 
A.  Broadus  have  found  an  extremely  difficult  task 
"  to  make  questions  and  answers  about  the  exist- 
ence and  attributes  of  the  Divine  Being  that  shall 
be  intelligible  to  children,"  and  yet  few  will  be 
disposed  to  quarrel  with  the  enthusiasm  of  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  when  he  writes  that  "the  Shorter 
Catechism  opens  with  the  best  and  shortest  and 
completest  sermon  ever  written  upon  man's  chief 
end."  At  the  first  public  meeting  of  the  Sunday- 
school  Union  in  London,  in  1812,  it  was  reported 
that  thirty-eight  thousand  copies  of  a  catechism  in 
verse,  entitled  "  Milk  for  Babes,"  had  been  printed ; 
and  in  the  records  of  an  old  Baptist  church  in 
Yorkshire,  under  date  October  15,  1822,  I  find 
that  the  church  "  thought  it  proper  that  school 
children  be  taught  to  get  catechisms  off."  I  ask 
you  to  notice  this  because  it  is  plain,  I  think,  that 
the  older  Sunday-schools  trained  the  memory  far 
more  than  we  do,  and  to  me  it  seems  one  good 
sign  of  our  times  that  there  is  once  more  a  strong 
and  intelligent  movement,  originating  with  the 
editors  of  the  "  Biblical  World,"  of  Chicago,  to 
formulate  a  catechism  for  pupils  between  the  ages 
of  sixteen  and  twenty-one.1 

It  will  have  been  remarked  that  under  Robert 
Raikes  the  Bible  was  taught  in  the  school.     No 

1  "The  Outlook,"  March  2,  1901. 


g6  THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

catechism  was  to  be  suffered  to  usurp  its  place. 
As  early  as  1794  he  printed  a  little  book  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  pages,  about  four  inches 
square,  "'The  Sunday-school  Companion,'  con- 
sisting of  Scripture  sentences,  Disposed  in  such 
Order  as  will  quickly  ground  young  learners  in  the 
Fundamental  Doctrines  of  our  most  Holy  Re- 
ligion, and  at  the  same  time  Lead  Them  Pleas- 
antly On  from  Simple  and  Easy  to  Compound  and 
Difficult  Words."  The  Bible  was  to  be  the  text- 
book in  the  class.  Among  the  first  publications 
of  the  Sunday-school  Union  we  find l  "  A  Select 
List  of  Scriptures,  designed  as  a  Guide  to  teachers 
for  a  course  of  reading  in  Sunday-schools."  In 
18 1 8  the  union  prepared  a  "Reading  book  con- 
sisting of  extracts  from  the  Sacred  Scriptures." 
And  these  publications  were  only  temporary  in 
the  minds  of  the  managers  of  the  union.  "  The 
object  desired  and  sought  after  was  placing  in  the 
hands  of  all  the  scholars  who  could  read  the  Bible, 
a  complete  copy  of  the  word  of  God."  This  it 
was,  you  remember,  which  made  the  Sunday- 
school  enterprise  the  parent  of  the  Bible  Society. 
That  society,  in  its  turn,  recognized  its  obligation 
to  the  Sunday-school  Union  when,  in  1840,  after 
repeated  applications,  it  complied  with  the  request 
of  the  committee  for  a  cheap  Bible.     The  object 

1  Watson,  pp.  44,  45. 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  97 

of  this  concession  was  that,  "  read  under  the  direc- 
tion of  pious  teachers,  the  Scriptures  should  be 
studied  .  .  .  and  their  truths  impressed  upon  the 
memory."  l  The  reduction  in  the  price  of  Bibles 
created  such  a  demand  that,  after  expending 
.£14,000,  the  Bible  Society  found  it  necessary  in 
self-defense  to  stop  the  supply.  This  was  sixty 
years  ago.  To-day  the  Bible  is  probably  the  cheap- 
est book  which  issues  from  the  press. 

The  Bible  continued  to  be  used  in  the  classes 
of  English  Sunday-schools  certainly  through  the 
first  two-thirds  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Prob- 
ably it  is  still  used  in  very  many  of  them.  For  a 
glimpse  of  the  teaching  as  late  as  1858  in  a  village 
in  one  of  the  midland  counties,  I  am  indebted  to 
my  friend,  Rev.  Dr.  Trotter,  president  of  Acadia 
College,  Nova  Scotia.      He  writes  : 

In  the  Sunday-school  of  the  General  Baptist  Church,  at 
Thurkeston,  Leicestershire,  England,  where  I  attended  as  a 
boy  from  1858  to  1867,  the  exercises  were  ordinarily  about 
as  follows  :  School  was  opened  with  singing  and  prayer,  the 
exercises  being  conducted  by  humble  men,  of  only  the 
slightest  education,  who  were  either  farm  laborers  or  petty 
tradesfolk.  The  hymns  used  were  of  a  very  doleful  sort,  a 
very  familiar  one  being  : 

"  And  am  I  born  to  die, 
To  lay  this  body  down, 
And  must  my  trembling  spirit  fly 
Into  a  world  unknown  ?  " 

1  Watson,  p.  48. 
G 


98  THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

Only  at  the  Sunday-school  anniversary,  when  special  serv- 
ices were  arranged,  were  the  brighter  hymns,  which  were 
then  coming  somewhat  into  use  in  other  places,  employed. 
The  first  of  these  which  I  can  recall,  and  which  was  handed 
out  in  printed  form  on  single  sheets,  was  the  hymn, 

' '  There  is  a  better  world,  they  say, 
Oh,  so  bright  !" 

I  can  never  forget  the  delight  with  which  this  hymn  thrilled 
me  as  a  little  fellow  of  seven  or  eight. 

The  prayers  were  very  hackneyed,  so  much  so  that  as 
regards  fixity  of  expression  we  got  the  advantage  of  a  liturgy 
without,  however,  its  color  and  music.  Nevertheless,  the 
ideas  so  often  repeated  were  substantially  correct  ideas,  and 
they  glowed  with  real  earnestness. 

After  the  opening  exercises  we  were  dismissed  to  classes. 
So  far  as  my  own  experience  goes,  and  I  think  it  represents 
what  prevailed  in  the  school,  the  half-hour  spent  in  class 
was  spent  entirely  in  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  There 
was  no  international  series  of  lessons  in  those  times,  nor 
was  there  any  systematic  direction  whatever  of  the  work  in 
the  classes.  One  class  read  in  one  part  of  the  Bible,  an- 
other in  another  part.  Often  the  choice  of  the  portion  was 
made  after  the  class  had  assembled,  the  scholars  having  as 
much  to  do  in  deciding  the  point  as  the  teacher.  Having 
fixed  upon  the  portion,  we  read  by  turn  till  the  half-hour 
was  up.  I  cannot  recall  that  there  was  any  effort  at  ex- 
planation. By  the  reading  process,  however,  we  got  a 
certain  surface  familiarity  with  large  portions  of  the  Bible. 
At  the  close  of  the  half-hour  the  superintendent  called  out 
"time  to  dismiss,"  the  younger  children  were  then  gath- 
ered together  for  singing  and  to  be  talked  to  by  somebody, 
while  the  older  scholars  retired  to  a  large  vestry,  round  the 
walls  of  which  were  folding  desks,  to  spend  half  an  hour 
writing   in   copy  books,  this  being   the   only   opportunity 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  99 

some  of  the  poorer  children  had  of  learning  to  write  at  all. 
After  this  the  entire  school  was  gathered  together  for  closing 
exercises,  which  always  included  a  few  words  about  the 
need  of  being  born  again,  or  the  dying  of  Jesus  as  the 
ground  of  forgiveness,  or  something  vital.  It  was  a  crude 
jumble  of  exercises,  but  I  can  trace  the  views  I  hold  and 
the  experiences  through  which  God' s  grace  has  led  me  to 
certain  beginnings  of  thought  and  feeling  and  resolve  in 
the  Sunday-school  of  that  dear  village  far  away. 

The  Sunday-school  Union  of  London,  first  by 
preparing  a  list  of  reading  lessons  for  the  use  of 
classes  and  then  by  publishing  monthly  "notes" 
as  a  guide  to  teachers  in  their  private  study  of  the 
lesson  for  the  day,  had  prepared  the  way  for  a  still 
wider  and  more  important  combination.  It  was  in 
Chicago  that,  under  Dr.  J.  H.  Vincent,  the  first  suc- 
cessful effort  was  made  to  promote  uniformity  in 
Bible  study  in  all  the  Protestant  schools  of  the  city. 
"  So  successful  was  this  experiment  at  uniformity 
in  Chicago  that  the  schools  from  other  towns  and 
cities  soon  began  to  use  these  lessons  also.  Before 
the  international  plan  was  agreed  upon  it  is  believed 
that  there  were  three  millions  of  people  engaged  in 
studying  the  lessons  issued  from  Chicago.  Then 
the  question  arose,  '  Why  not  extend  this  method 
of  studying  the  Scriptures  throughout  the  United 
States  and  so  make  it  national  ?  '  The  indica- 
tions were  that  that  could  easily  be  done.  '  But 
why  not  strike  out  boldly  and  go  still  further  ? ' 
it  was  asked.     <  Why  not  make   it  international  ? 


IOO       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

Why  may  there  not  be  a  common  study  of  the 
Bible  for  the  world  ? '  "  1  The  question  of  adopting 
a  plan  of  united  Bible  study  was  debated  at  a  Na- 
tional Sunday-school  Convention  held  in  1872  in 
Indianapolis.  When  the  debate  was  closed  and 
the  chairman  put  the  question  to  the  vote,  with 
the  exception  of  ten  persons,  the  great  throng 
arose  to  vote  in  favor  of  the  proposal,  and  as  by 
a  common  impulse  the  convention  broke  into  the 
doxology  in  which  all  English-speaking  people 
give  voice  to  religious  joy, 

"  Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow." 

Next  day  the  committee  which  had  the  matter  in 
charge  was  instructed  to  select  "  A  course  of  les- 
sons for  a  series  of  years  not  exceeding  seven, 
which  shall,  as  far  as  they  may  decide  possible, 
embrace  a  general  study  of  the  Bible."  2  An  Eng- 
lish religious  magazine,  in  describing  what  is  justly 
called  "a  great  literary  syndicate,"  thus  sketches 
the  work  which  has  now  for  so  many  years  been 
faithfully  carried  on  by  the  staff  of  "  The  Inter- 
national Sunday-school  Lesson  Series  "  : 

The  vast  dimensions  to  which  it  has  attained  is  a  striking 
evidence  of  the  evangelical  power  of  Christianity.  Little 
more  than  thirty-five  years  since  there  was  no  thought  of 
simultaneous  study  in  our  Sunday-schools  ;  nowadays 
twenty  million  teachers  and   pupils  are  week  after  week 

1  "Report  of  the  World's  Convention,"  etc.,  1889,  p.  117. 
2  "  The  Sunday  Magazine,"  1901. 


IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  10 1 

studying  the  same  lesson.  The  central  editorial  staff  of 
this  great  organization  is  the  American  Lesson  Committee, 
which  held  its  last  meeting  in  New  York  on  April  17,  1901. 
It  has,  however,  an  auxiliary  body  of  associates  known  as 
the  British  section,  to  which  its  work  is  submitted  for 
amendment  and  concurrence.  As  the  members  of  this 
section  are  divided  between  England,  Australia,  and  India, 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  entire  editorial  organization  covers 
three  continents.  America,  however,  exerts  the  dominant 
influence,  for  the  initiative  rests  with  the  American  com- 
mittee and  the  movement  had  its  birth  in  Chicago. 

Generally  the  sessions  are  held  in  the  parlor  of  a  hotel. 
The  full  number  on  the  committee  roll  is  fifteen.  The 
present  American  Lesson  Committee  was  appointed  in 
1896  and  proceeded  to  the  preparation  of  lessons  for  1900- 
1905.  The  theme  chosen  was  the  life  of  Christ  and  of  the 
great  prophets,  leaders,  and  apostles.  At  the  first  meeting 
the  scheme  for  this  particular  study  is  settled  and  an  abstract 
of  the  proceedings  is  sent  to  each  member  of  the  British 
section— six  in  England,  one  in  Australia,  and  one  in  India. 
When  the  criticism  on  the  abstract  comes  back,  the  com- 
mittee meets  again,  and  if  the  scheme  is  approved  by  the 
corresponding  members  a  detailed  outline  of  the  lessons  for 
five  years  is  arranged.  The  first  question  with  regard  to 
each  lesson  is,  "From  what  book  and  chapter  shall  it  be 
taken?"  The  selection  must  be  above  denominational  or 
controversial  issues,  and  it  must  be  within  the  mental  grasp 
of  every  boy  or  girl,  and  at  least  a  portion  of  the  lesson  and 
the  golden  text  must  hold  the  attention  of  the  toddlers  in 
the  primary  classes. 

Then  the  passage  which  is  the  gem  of  the  lesson  is  se- 
lected for  special  treatment.  Almost  as  difficult  a  task  as 
the  choice  of  golden  texts,  to  which  much  thought  is  devoted, 
is  the  giving  of  appropriate  names  to  the  various  lessons. 


102       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

When  the  lessons  for  the  quarter  have  been  chosen  the 
selections  are  subjected  to  a  critical  examination  regarding 
their  relation  to  the  lessons  of  the  whole  year.  In  the  same 
manner  the  completion  of  the  selections  for  a  year  is  the 
signal  for  a  patient  re-examination  of  every  lesson,  with 
special  reference  to  the  manner  in  which  the  year' s  series 
fits  into  the  plan  for  the  period  and  for  the  entire  six  years 
embraced  in  the  work  of  the  committee.  Then  the  lessons 
thus  definitely  selected  by  the  American  Committee  are 
printed  on  strong  paper,  and  copies  are  forwarded  to  the 
British  section  for  final  emendation.  After  this  the  year' s 
lessons  are  sent  round  to  the  great  publishing  houses,  which 
print  them  as  leaflets,  and  hundreds  of  commentators  set  to 
work  to  assist  in  elucidating  them. 

The  committee  has  not  failed  to  represent  with 
fairness  the  great  denominations  of  Protestant 
Christendom,  and,  although  Bishop  Vincent  and 
Mr.  B.  F.  Jacobs,  who  were  foremost  in  formu- 
lating the  lessons,  remain  to-day  almost  alone  of 
the  leaders  at  the  memorable  Indianapolis  Con- 
vention, yet  the  spirit  of  the  great  enterprise  is 
practically  unchanged.  Its  success  was  no  doubt 
due  to  a  happy  mingling  of  sentiment  and  common 
sense.  The  imagination  of  multitudes  of  Chris- 
tian people,  always  eager  for  union,  was  fascinated 
by  the  idea  of  the  great  army  of  Sunday-schools 
engaged  simultaneously  in  the  study  of  the  same 
portion  of  the  Bible.  And  the  sturdy  denomina- 
tional feeling  was  satisfied  that  no  personal  con- 
victions were  to  be  offended  by  a  plan  which  left 


IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY       103 

it  to  the   separate  churches    to    issue  their  own 
lesson  notes. 

Brought  together  (such  is  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Warren 
Randolph,  speaking  in  the  retrospect  of  twenty-seven  years 
of  active  work  on  the  International  Lesson  Committee),  as 
we  have  been  from  many  different  denominations,  we  have 
found  no  difficulty  in  regard  to  a  common  ground  upon 
which  to  stand  in  turning  every  leaf  of  the  Bible.  There 
is  not  a  chapter  or  verse  from  Genesis  to  Revelation  which 
has  been  passed  by  because  of  differences  of  opinion.  With 
different  interpretations  we  have  had  nothing  whatever  to 
do.  All  that  has  been  left  to  the  teachers  and  expositors 
of  the  different  schools  and  different  denominations.1 

During  the  remaining  years  of  the  century  the 
International  Lessons  held  the  field.  As  time 
passed  on,  with  a  more  intelligent  study  of  the 
Bible  there  came  to  be  grave  questionings  on  the 
part  of  many  whether  too  much  had  not  been  sur- 
rendered to  the  mere  sentiment  of  uniformity. 
At  the  result  of  these  questionings  we  shall  glance 
later  on.  Our  study  thus  far  must  certainly  have 
convinced  us  that  the  International  Lesson  course 
has  rendered  an  incalculable  service  to  the  cause 
of  intelligent  Bible  study. 

And  to  the  whole  work  of  the  Sunday-school  in 
its  renewed  vigor  we  owe  it,  as  much  as  to  any 
one  cause,  that  the  religious  life  of  the  Old  and 
New  World  has  been  roused  and  lifted.      Such  dark 

1  "World's  Convention,"  etc.,  1889,  p.  120. 


104       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

forebodings  as  the  century  opened  with  were  cer- 
tainly uncalled  for  when  it  closed.  "The  univer- 
sal inactivity  of  all  religions,"  which  Horace  Wal- 
pole  noted  in  England  in  1780  as  a  symptom  of 
degeneration  ;  the  "  daily  complaints  of  the  irre- 
ligion  and  depravity  of  the  age,  which  in  1802  a 
reviewer  of  Doctor  Blair's  sermons  feared  to  be 
'not  louder  than  just'";  the  low  ebb  of  Bible 
study  and  Bible  teaching  in  America  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  which  we  have 
already  alluded,  all  these  had  ceased  to  be  charac- 
teristic of  that  century  long  before  it  reached  its 
last  year.  When  Canon  Farrar  affirms  that  it  is 
no  exaggeration  at  all  to  say  that  through  the 
organization  commenced  by  the  simple  citizen  of 
Gloucester  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Christ's  little 
ones  have  been  reached  and  have  been  influenced 
for  their  temporal  and  eternal  good,  he  says  only 
what  the  history  of  the  Sunday-schools  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  proves  to  be  even  less  than  the  whole 
truth.  Not  the  children  alone,  but  the  entire  life 
of  the  people  at  large,  has  been  lifted  into  a  brighter 
light  and  into  a  purer  and  sweeter  atmosphere  by 
the  work  which  Robert  Raikes  commenced  when, 
in  answer  to  the  inward  voice,  "  Can  nothing  be 
done?"  he  responded  bravely,  "Try." 


IV 


THE  MINISTER  AND  THE  YOUNG  PEO- 
PLE OF  THE  CONGREGATION 


Nothing  should  take  the  place  of  parental  obligation. 
The  minister  as  the  friend  of  the  young  people.  Three 
stages  in  the  development  of  the  young.  The  minister  as 
the  pastor  of  the  young  people.  Influence  of  infant  bap- 
tism. Pastoral  visitation.  Organizing  the  young  people 
for  Christian  life  and  work.  The  minister  as  a  preacher  to 
the  young.      Children' s  services.     The  sermon  or  address. 


IV 


THE     MINISTER     AND     THE    YOUNG     PEOPLE    OF    THE 
CONGREGATION 

As  there  is  nothing  which  should  lessen  parental 
responsibility,  so  there  is  nothing  which  should 
take  the  place  of  parental  obligation.  The  school 
and  the  church  miss  their  mark  when  they  do  this. 
The  claims  alike  of  God  and  of  the  commonwealth 
demand  that  the  father  and  the  mother  recognize 
that  on  them,  in  the  first  instance,  does  it  rest  to 
train  their  child  in  the  duties  of  life.  "  There  can 
be  no  question,"1  says  Edersheim,  "that  according 
to  the  law  of  Moses,  the  early  education  of  a  child 
devolved  upon  the  father ;  of  course  always  bear- 
ing in  mind  that  his  first  training  would  be  the 
mother's."  It  is  from  the  home  that  we  catch  the 
earliest  notes  of  instruction.  From  the  lifted  tent- 
flap  or  from  the  latticed  window  come  these 
sounds:  "And  ye  shall  teach  these  my  words  to 
your  children,  speaking  of  them  when  thou  sittest 
in  thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way, 
when  thou  liest  down  and  when  thou  risest  up."  2 

Abraham   was  priest   as  well   as  father   in   his 

1  "Sketches,"  etc.,  p.  129.  2Deut.  11  :  19. 

107 


108       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

household.  No  after  change,  no  partition  of  offices, 
can  affect  the  conclusion  to  which  we  are  brought 
by  this  fact.  Even  the  initiatory  rite  of  the  Jews 
belonged  to  the  parents  more  than  to  the  priest. 
It  was  they  who  presented  the  child.  It  was  they 
who  made  the  offerings.  Bushnell,  in  dealing  with 
infant  baptism,  says  : 

According  to  the  more  ancient  view  nothing  depends  upon 
the  priest  or  minister  save  that  he  execute  the  rite  in  due 
form.  .  .  Everything  depends  upon  the  organic  law  of 
character  pertaining  between  the  parent  and  the  child,  the 
church  and  the  child,  thus  upon  duty  and  holy  living  and 
gracious  example.1 

At  the  very  outset,  then,  let  us  understand 
clearly  that  the  parent  precedes  the  minister,  the 
family  the  church,  and  the  home  the  school.  The 
founder  of  Sunday-schools,  Robert  Raikes,  evi- 
dently loved  his  great  enterprise  none  the  less  be- 
cause he  loved  his  own  home  circle  first,  for  he 
writes  to  an  old  correspondent  in  the  pleasantly 
formal  fashion  of  his  century :  "  I  must  now  tell 
you  that  I  am  blessed  with  six  excellent  girls  and 
two  lovely  boys.  My  eldest  boy  was  born  the  very 
day  that  I  made  public  to  the  world  the  scheme 
of   Sunday-schools,  in  my  paper  of  November  3, 

1783." 

And  yet  home  teaching  is  not  enough.     The 

1  "Christian  Nurture,"  p.  46. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      IO9 

parents  who  can  and  who  will  give  Bible  instruc- 
tion to  their  children  are  few  in  number.  In  the 
majority  of  cases  the  most  that  we  can  hope  for 
is  parental  example,  and  the  home  is  fortunate 
when  even  that  is  what  it  should  be.  In  no  coun- 
try in  the  world  does  the  home  stand  for  more 
than  it  does  in  Germany,  and  nowhere,  I  suppose, 
does  the  State  do  more  in  the  way  of  religious 
education  in  the  public  schools  ;  yet  it  was  the 
lack  of  intelligent  Bible  study  that  led  an  American 
traveler  in  that  country  to  start  a  Sunday-school 
in  Berlin  which  has  met  with  such  favor  that  now 
"  all  clergymen  who  are  not  rationalists  have  Sun- 
day-schools." l 

So  it  comes  about  that  we  need  to  ask  ourselves 
what  the  church  owes  to  the  children  ;  and  since 
the  minister  is  to  so  large  an  extent  the  represent- 
ative of  the  church  our  theme  in  this  chapter  is 
his  relation  to  them  as  friend,  pastor,  and  preacher. 

And,  first,  let  us  look  on  the  minister  as  the 
friend  of  the  young  people  in  his  congregation. 
First,  I  say,  because  it  is  first.  He  will  influence 
them  little  as  pastor  or  preacher  unless  as  their 
friend  he  has  already  won  their  hearts.  Knowl- 
edge comes  by  way  of  the  affections  ;  and  it  is 
John,  "the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,"  who  look- 
ing through  the  sheen  of  the  morning,  recognizes, 

1  Trumbull,  p.  135. 


IIO       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

earlier  than  Peter  or  the  other  disciples,  the  Mas- 
ter standing  on  the  lake  shore,  and  says  in  raptured 
tones,  "It  is  the   Lord." 

As  I  think  of  it  now,  in  the  sunny  haze  of  many 
pastoral  reminiscences,  no  relation  other  than  that 
of  kindred,  seems  more  beautiful  than  this  which 
grows  up  between  the  minister  and  the  children 
of  his  parish.  It  was  a  far  cry  from  the  London 
lodging  to  the  Irish  parsonage  ;  but  to  Oliver  Gold- 
smith the  portrait  of  his  father,  the  good  minister, 
had  lost  none  of  its  vivid  color  as  memory  recalled 
it ;  and  so  he  wrote  : 

E'  en  children  followed  with  endearing  wile 

And  pluck'  d  his  gown  to  share  the  good  man' s  smile. 

His  ready  smile  a  parent's  warmth  express' d, 

Their  welfare  pleased  him,  and  their  cares  distressed. 

To  them  his  heart,  his  love,  his  griefs  were  given, 

But  all  his  serious  thoughts  had  rest  in  heaven. 

A  pastor  writing  of  his  forty  years' l  experience 
in  one  church  says : 

How  it  began  I  forget,  but  it  came  to  pass  that  for  years 
at  the  close  of  each  morning's  service,  children  from  four 
to  ten  years  of  age,  came  up  into  the  pulpit  and  kissed  the 
pastor.  That  custom  was  very  beautiful.  It  made  the  pul- 
pit look  like  a  bouquet  of  fragrant,  animated  flowers.  He 
will  never  forget  it,  and  believes  that  they  will  remember  it 
in  all  after  years.  On  one  occasion  an  eminent  minister,  in 
exchange,  occupied  the  pastor' s  place,  and  our  little  ones, 

1  Baldwin,  p.  50. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      I  I  I 

as  was  their  habit,  went  up  into  the  pulpit  to  salute  him  ; 
but  he  started  back  in  amazement,  and  exclaimed  : 
"Whose  young  ones  are  these?"  At  which  greeting  they 
retired  in  shamefaced  disorder.  No  man  can  do  the  full 
work  of  the  ministry  without  love  for,  and  perpetual  interest 
in,  children. 

Let  the  minister,  therefore,  begin  as  early  as 
possible  to  win  the  affection  of  the  children  in  his 
congregation.  Let  the  child  unconsciously  asso- 
ciate him  with 

The  sweet  presence  of  a  good  diffused. 1 

And  let  those  childish  memories  be  connected  with 
religion.  One  purpose  of  the  whole  Jewish  ritual, 
of  the  private  and  united  prayers  of  the  family,  of 
the  various  domestic  rites,  of  the  weekly  Sabbaths 
and  the  stated  festivals,  was  just  this  :  "  From  the 
moment  a  child  was  at  all  capable  of  being  in- 
structed,— still  more  of  his  taking  any  part  in  the 
services, — the  impression  would  deepen  day  by 
day."2 

The  Jews,  so  says  Philo,  "  were  from  their  swad- 
dling clothes,  even  before  being  taught  either  the 
sacred  laws  or  the  unwritten  customs,  trained  by 
their  parents,  teachers,  and  instructors  to  recog- 
nize God  as  Father  and  as  the  Maker  of  the 
world."  3 


1  George  Eliot. 
2Edersheim,  "Sketches,"  etc.,  p.  108.        3  Ibid.,  p.  no. 


112       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

It  is  not  for  us  to  speculate  on  how  much  of  a 
religious  nature  the  soul  coming  from  afar  brings 
with  it,  nor  how  profound  a  truth  Mrs.  Browning 
expresses  when  she  says  : 

I  have  not  so  far  left  the  coasts  of  life 

To  travel  inland,  that  I  cannot  hear 

That  murmur  of  the  outer  Infinite 

Which  unvveaned  babies  smile  at  in  their  sleep, 

When  wondered  at  for  smiling. x 

Enough  if  the  pastor  comes  to  be  associated 
lovingly  in  the  impressions  of  this  young  life,  and 
to  become  an  influence  for  good,  growing  with  its 
growth  and  strengthening  with  its  strength.  The 
fact  that  the  minister  assumes  no  priestly  attitude 
toward  the  child  will  make  the  early  impression  all 
the  purer,  by  importing  into  it  no  element  that  is 
tinctured  by  pride  or  assumption.  "  I  have  re- 
fused authority,"  said  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  "  that 
I  might  have  influence,  which  is  a  great  deal  bet- 
ter." 

The  one  essential,  so  it  seems  to  me,  to  this 
tender  and  beautiful  influence  is  that  on  his  part 
the  minister  preserve  fresh  the  child's  heart.  Some 
will  remember  how  Mr.  Beecher  himself  kept  this, 
and  how  as  he  left  Plymouth  Church  for  the  last 
time  it  was  with  his  arms  about  two  little  street 
boys  who  had  wandered  in,  after  the  service  was 

1  "Aurora  Leigh." 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      I  1 3 

over,  when  the  congregation  had  dispersed,  and 
while  the  organist  was  playing  to  the  tired  preacher 
the  tunes  he  loved  the  best.  Somehow  there  comes 
unbidden  to  our  minds  the  words  of  the  olden 
story,  as  applicable  to  the  man  for  whom  the  life 
of  storm  and  stress  was  now  almost  over :  "  And 
his  flesh  came  again  like  unto  the  flesh  of  a  little 
child,  and  he  was  clean."  And  some  will  remem- 
ber too,  how  on  his  death-bed  Thomas  Guthrie, 
the  children's  friend,  begged  that  they  would  sing 
to  him  "a  bairn's  hymn."  The  child-heart  craved 
its  own  nourishment.  I  pray  my  readers  to  pre- 
serve it  also.  Apart  from  the  joy  which  it  will  bring 
into  all  your  lives,  and  the  relief  which  it  will  bring 
into  all  your  ministry,  it  will  be  of  vast  importance 
in  your  influence  on  the  children  in  the  congrega- 
tion if  its  minister  can  to  the  end  say  with  Words- 
worth • 

My  heart  leaps  up  when  I  behold 
A  rainbow  in  the  sky  ; 

So  was  it  when  my  life  began, 

So  is  it  now  I  am  a  man, 

So  be  it  when  I  shall  grow  old, 
Or  let  me  die  ! 

The  child  is  father  to  the  man, 

And  I  could  wish  my  days  to  be 

Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety. 

His  affection  for  the  young  people  and  his  desire 
to  do  them  good,  will  lead  the  minister  to  study 
them.      He  will  soon  discover  that  the  two  daugh- 

H 


114      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

ters  of  the  horse-leech,1  "  crying,  give,  give,"  have 
many  brothers  and  sisters.  A  gentleman  found  a 
little  boy,  barefooted  and  in  rags,  on  his  doorstep 
one  morning.  "  And  what  do  you  want,  little  one  ? " 
he  inquired  ;  and  the  boy  looking  himself  over 
with  a  rapid  glance,  answered,  "  Everything." 
Every  healthy  child  wants  everything ;  and  how- 
ever long  he  lives  or  however  much  he  gathers,  he 
will  not  get  beyond  the  noble  discontent  which 
Paul  expressed  when  he  said,  "  Not  as  though  I 
had  already  attained,  either  were  already  perfect." 
To  the  development  of  what  we  may  for  the 
moment  call  "  the  young  person,*"  there  have  been 
three  distinct  stages.  By  all  means  let  us  remem- 
ber this  in  our  treatment  of  the  various  steps  of 
that  young  person's  growth.  First,  imagination, 
when  the  child,  like  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  walk- 
ing the  Edinburgh  street,  is  forever  "supposing." 
The  little  child  is  in  this  stage ;  and  if  one  means 
to  engage  his  attention  he  may  tell  a  story.  To 
this  succeeds  memory,  and  now  a  personal  remi- 
niscence will  interest.  Then  comes,  third,  reflec- 
tion, and  with  it  powers  of  reasoning,  which  will 
fasten  upon  a  thought  if  attractively  put.  Imagi- 
nation, and  then  memory,  and  then  reflection — 
this,  roughly  speaking  (and  with  no  great  care  for 
the  modern  disposition  to  study  child-life  in  strata), 

1  Prov.  30  :  15. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      I  1 5 

this  seems  to  be  the  order  of  the  growing  intelli- 
gence. To  recall  these  points  when  one  conducts 
the  public  service  and  aims  to  catch  the  attention 
of  the  younger  element  in  the  congregation,  will 
be  good ;  but  better  still  will  it  be  never  to  forget 
it.  It  will  open  to  us  the  avenue  of  approach  to 
the  hearts  of  the  children,  of  the  boys  or  girls, 
and  of  the  young  people. 

In  the  second  place,  we  must  consider  the  min- 
ister as  the  pastor  of  the  young  people  in  his  con- 
gregation. 

[The  early  Jewish  rites  brought  each  child  in  the  theoc- 
racy into  close  relations  to  the  priest.  The  churches  which 
observe  infant  baptism  give,  perhaps,  an  advantage  of  the 
same  kind  to  their  minister.  It  may  be  viewed  as  a  sacra- 
ment, or  it  may  be  looked  at  only  as  a  simple  form  of  dedi- 
cation, but  in  any  case  the  pastor,  by  virtue  of  this  baptis- 
mal service,  comes  into  sympathetic  connection  with  the 
child.  He  has  some  ground  for  appeal,  although  in  most 
cases  the  ground  may  not  be  taken  with  any  pretense  of 
sacerdotal  authority. 

The  writer  is  strongly  disposed  to  believe  that  a  consecra- 
tion service  for  infants  should  be  encouraged  among  us, 
with  the  assent  of  the  parents,  and  not  so  much  as  a  duty 
but  as  a  privilege.  There  seems  to  be  authority  for  it  in 
the  practice  of  some  Baptist  churches  :  for  instance,  the 
First  Baptist  Church,  Hartford, Ct.  ;  Dr.  John  Clifford's,  Lon- 
don ;  and  Emmanuel  Baptist  Church,  New  York  City,  Sam- 
uel Alman,  pastor,  1890.  In  one  church  in  New  York  the 
pastor  for  many  years  of  his  ministry  has  "urged  it  as  a 
duty  upon  Christian  parents  to  bring  their  children  as  soon 
as  possible  to  the  house  of  God  and  there  publicly  conse- 


Il6       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

crate  and  name  them  with  prayer  and  thanksgiving."  To 
every  family  whose  child  is  thus  dedicated,  is  given  a  cer- 
tificate of  consecration,  and  the  pastor  testifies  that  "many 
blessings  have  followed  this  religious  ceremony."  Among 
the  announcements  made  in  the  weekly  "Bulletin"  of  the 
Westbourne  Park  Baptist  Church,  London,  of  which  Dr. 
John  Clifford  is  the  minister,  I  find  the  following:  "The 
next  baptism  will  take  place  on  Wednesday  evening,  Jan- 
uary 19th,  and  the  next  dedication  service  of  children  to 
God  our  Father  will  be  held  on  Sunday  morning,  January 
23rd."] 

One  of  our  first  duties  as  ministers  is  to  include 
the  children  of  the  families  among  those  who  have 
the  benefit  of  pastoral  visitation.  We  need  to 
learn  not  only  their  Christian  names,  but  also  the 
familiar  and  endearing  epithets  which  they  may 
bear  at  home.  To  remember  the  names  of  the 
sons  of  Levi  or  how  Amram  stood  related  to  Uzziel 
can  be  of  no  practical  service  to  us  which  is  at  all 
comparable  with  the  knowledge  that  Mary  is  two 
years  older  than  Frank  and  two  years  younger 
than  Kate. 

Let  us  study  the  tastes  of  the  children.  There 
are  many  instances  on  record  of  pastoral  popularity 
when  this  was  done  more  literally  than  is  here 
intended.  The  minister's  pockets  have  prepared 
the  way  for  the  minister's  precepts.  I  remember 
riding  one  summer  afternoon  with  a  French  curt, 
who  was  returning  to  his  parish  from  the  weekly 
market,  and  how  heartily  he  was  welcomed  as  he 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      WJ 

paused  at  one  farm  after  another  to  drop  his  sim- 
ple purchases, — a  book  for  Jacques,  a  toy  for  Marie, 
a  doll  for  Babette, — and  I  think  that  I  learned 
then  and  there  one  of  my  earliest  lessons  in  pas- 
toral theology.  "Talk  with  the  children,"  said 
Wesley  to  his  preachers,  "  every  time  you  see  any 
at  home."  l  But  I  mean  more,  far  more,  than 
this.  Let  us  find  the  bent  of  each  young  mind. 
We  may  help  to  develop  the  intellectual  and  moral 
growth  of  a  hundred  lives.  The  normal  school, 
the  college,  the  ministry  may  witness,  by  and  by, 
to  the  fruitage  of  our  intelligent  study  of  these 
opening  years. 

I  would  go  further.  When  we  have  won  their 
love  and  gained  their  respect  for  our  words  we 
may  now  and  then  form  voluntary  classes  for  in- 
struction from  our  lips  in  religious  truth.  In  occa- 
sional vacations,  winter  and  spring  and  summer, 
we  can  set  apart  one  or  two  hours  and  meet  those 
who  are  free  from  the  work  of  the  public  school. 
We  can  talk  to  them  directly  and  simply  upon  the 
chief  things.  Perhaps  we  may  set  them  learning 
texts  so  as  to  have  something  with  which  to  break 
the  ice  at  the  beginning  of  the  hour.2  But  we 
must  shun  all  formality,  and,  as  we  love  the  class, 
keep   clear  of  all  assumption   of  the  pedagogue. 

1Tyerman's  "Life  of  Wesley,"  3  :  23. 

2  "  Treasure  Texts  for  Youthful  Memories,"  Barton.     The  Pil- 
grim Press,  Chicago. 


I  1 8       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

The  purely  voluntary  character  of  the  gathering 
will  be  helped  if  the  children  are  met  alone,  with- 
out any  older  persons  (not  even  their  parents) 
being  present.  A  little  book  given  to  each  as  a 
memorial  of  these  occasional  classes  will  become 
an  heirloom.  This  was  the  praiseworthy  practice 
of  the  Puritan  leader,  Cotton  Mather.  He  brought 
his  young  people  into  religious  association,  and 
added  to  Janeway's  "Token  for  Children" — then 
first  published  in  Boston — a  little  book  of  his  own, 
which,  however,  hardly  tempts  us  by  its  title, 
"  Some  examples  of  children  in  whom  the  fear  of 
God  was  remarkably  budding  before  they  died  in 
several  parts  of  New  England."  l  But  a  glance  at 
the  old-fashioned  Sunday-school  library  may  make 
us  less  censorious  when  we  reflect  how  long  "  the 
anaemic  child  continued  to  be  a  great  part  of 
spiritual  literature."  The  pious  but  unhealthy 
little  boy  who  died  early,  also  died  out  very  slowly 
from  our  books  for  children. 

I  am  not  aware  that  among  the  experts  in  sta- 
tistics, often  too  much  in  evidence  in  our  churches, 
any  one  has  gathered  the  figures  in  reference  to 
the  causes  which  lead  to  conversion.  The  general 
impression  that  preaching  is  the  most  prolific 
source  is  probably  erroneous.  The  influence  and 
instruction  of    a   good    Sunday-school    teacher   is 

1  "Life,"  p.  221  ;   "Old  Chester  Tales, "  p.  93. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      I  IQ 

likely  to  be  more  productive  of  positive  results 
than  the  average  sermon.  But  if  I  were  asked  to 
what  can  be  traced  the  largest  number  of  conver- 
sions which  have  been  permanent  and  powerful,  I 
think  that  without  much  hesitation  I  should  point 
to  pastoral  influence.  For  personal  surrender  and 
consecration  in  a  natural  and  simple  way,  without 
the  unhealthful  influences  of  heated  rooms,  flaring 
lamps,  exciting  hymns,  and  sensational  appeals, 
the  true  minister  will  work  all  the  time. 

The  true  pastor  will  refuse  to  reckon  an  ap- 
prenticeship to  sin  essential  to  the  service  of  God. 
The  time  has  passed,  I  hope,  in  which  the  house- 
hold of  faith  numbered  no  children  among  its 
family.  We  have  come  to  believe  heartily  in 
early  folding.  It  is  preferable  to  Cotton  Mather's 
ideal  of  early  dying.  His  buds  all  fell  short  of 
flowers,  ours  blossom.  The  story  may  be  recalled 
— which  has  been  told  under  so  many  guises  that 
there  is  probably  some  truth  in  it — of  the  good  old 
Scottish  elder  who,  being  deeply  concerned  be- 
cause his  pastor  persistently  refused  to  allow  chil- 
dren to  be  admitted  to  church-fellowship,  invited 
him  to  his  house.  After  tea  the  elder  took  the 
pastor  out  to  see  his  large  flock  of  sheep  put  into 
the  fold.  Taking  his  stand  at  the  entrance  to  the 
sheepfold,  the  elder  allowed  the  sheep  to  enter, 
but  as  the  little  lambs  came  up  he  roughly  pushed 
them  back  with  a  heavy  stick.     At  this  unnatural 


120       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

treatment  the  pastor  became  very  indignant  and 
exclaimed  :  "  What  are  you  doing  to  the  lambs  ? 
They  need  the  shelter  far  more  than  the  sheep !  " 
"Just  what  you  are  doing  to  the  children  of  the 
church,"  was  the  prompt  reply.  Upon  the  churches 
generally  as  well  as  upon  that  particular  pastor  this 
lesson  has  had  its  due  effect.  We  are  prepared  as 
never  before  to  bring  the  children  to  the  good 
Shepherd  and  find  shelter  for  them  in  his  arms. 

Gradually  too,  although  the  growth  of  this  con- 
viction is  slow,  we  are  coming  to  see  that  each 
stage  in  our  human  life  has  to  be  treated  according 
to  its  own  capacity.  Nothing  seems  more  intol- 
erable than  the  religious  prodigy.  The  old  head 
upon  young  shoulders  is  an  abortion.  Boys,  as 
Henry  Drummond  puts  it,  are  to  be  religious  as 
boys  and  not  as  old  maids.1  In  religion  as  in 
other  matters  it  has  been  found  true  that  for  pre- 
cocity "  some  great  price  is  always  demanded, 
sooner  or  later."  2  A  child  with  a  man's  appetite, 
a  lad  of  twelve  with  the  erudition  of  Grotius,  a 
cyclopaedic  mind  in  a  twenty  years  old  student, 
have  no  attraction  for  a  sane  judgment.  It  is 
right  that  your  Admirable  Crichtons  should  die 
young. 

If  the  pastor  is  wise  he  will  encourage  only  a 
healthful  and  natural  growth  in  the  religions  life  of 

1  H.  Drummond,  "Life,"  p.  344. 
2  "  Life  of  Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli,"  p.  374. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      121 

his  young  people.  It  would  be  hard  to  calculate 
the  harm  that  has  been  done  to  children  by  teach- 
ing them  to  repeat  formulas  in  their  prayer  meet- 
ings which,  however  much  they  mean  to  their 
elders,  are  on  their  lips  absurd  in  their  unreality. 
By  and  by  they  may  have  significance  enough,  but 
to  foist  on  the  springtime  the  heats  of  summer 
and  the  hurricanes  of  the  fall  is  to  do  a  wrong  to 
the  true  order  of  nature.  How  often  one  has 
heard  that  tremendous  word  "consecration" — "  I 
wish  to  consecrate  myself" — from  a  young  girl 
scarcely  yet  in  her  teens,  and  glibly  ready  with 
phrases  for  which  she  really  cared  less  than  she 
did  for  the  ribbon  on  her  hat.  With  all  our  hearts 
we  join  with  Horace  Bushnell  in  his  protest  against 
the 

Early  wasting  of  impressions  and  experiences  and  a  creep- 
ing in  of  untruth  whilst  the  power  vanishes  and  the  forms 
of  speech  remain.  For  both  the  most  delicate  and  the 
most  solemn  experiences  become,  after  this  method,  objects 
of  continual  reflection  and  conversation  under  which,  at 
last,  solemn  earnestness  as  well  as  all  delicacy  is  destroyed, 
and  there  remains  either  a  continual  self-deception,  with 
the  semblance  of  the  reality  of  godliness,  or  a  gnawing  con- 
sciousness of  an  increasing  untruthfulness  and  of  an  inner 
unfruitfulness  beneath  a  mass  of  phrases.1 

To  promote  a  healthful  growth — a  child's  faith 
for  the  child,  a  boy's  for  the  boy,  a  young  man's 

1  "  Christian  Nurture,"  p.  382. 


122       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

for  the  young  man — will  be  the  aim  of  the  pastor. 
It  may  indeed  be  easier  for  him  to  let  the  usual 
superficial  and  unreal  methods  remain  undisturbed, 
just  as  it  may  also  be  easier  to  preach  moral  essays 
or  to  discuss  sociological  problems  or  to  analyze 
the  poets  in  his  sermons  rather  than  Sunday  after 
Sunday  to  preach  the  truths  which  are  able  to 
make  men  wise  unto  salvation.  But  if  the  preacher 
is  a  good  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  he  will  not  let 
his  preaching  and  his  pastoral  work  run  on  in  easy 
grooves  and  then  every  two  or  three  years,  calling 
on  his  people  to  confess  their  unfaithfulness  and 
get  up  a  revival,  send  for  an  evangelist  and  expect 
to  do  with  his  poor  dynamite  what  the  minister 
himself  should  have  been  doing  all  the  time  with 
the  divine  power  of  Christian  nurture  and  with  the 
divine  provision  of  faithful  preaching. 

Has  not  a  serious  wrong  been  done  to  many  a 
young  person  brought  into  the  church,  by  the  neg- 
lect of  all  after  training?  The  greatest  anxiety 
has  been  shown  to  get  him  into  the  Christian 
fellowship,  and  the  greatest  joy  has  been  expressed 
when  once  he  was  fairly  within  the  gates ;  but 
what  after  that?  The  religion  even  of  " highly 
educated  young  persons,"  it  has  been  said,  "  con- 
sists of  miscellaneous  notions  picked  up  from 
formal  attendance  on  the  public  worship,  supple- 
mented by  a  few  promiscuous  remarks  heard  in 
the  home   circle,   and   colored   by  the   superficial 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      123 

wash  of  fictitious  literature."  l  Let  us  set  ourselves 
to  remedy  this.  The  pastor  should  have  training 
classes  for  young  converts,  and  instruct  them  fa- 
miliarly in  the  doctrines  and  practices,  the  history 
and  present  condition,  of  the  church  of  which  they 
are  members,  as  well  as  of  the  yet  broader  church 
of  which  it,  in  its  turn,  forms  only  a  part. 

Do  we  not  also  need  to  revise  what  I  may  call 
the  church  suffrage  ?  Many  churches,  it  is  cur- 
rently reported,  are  unduly  controlled  by  the  young 
people.  Irresponsible,  swayed  by  feelings  or  preju- 
dices, contributing  little  or  nothing  to  the  income 
of  the  society,  yet,  by  virtue  of  their  numbers  alone, 
they  can  decide  the  choice  of  a  pastor  or  precipi- 
tate his  resignation,  launch  the  church  on  the 
troubled  sea  of  debt  on  the  one  hand,  or  on  the 
other  hinder  necessary  projects  of  extension — 
although  to  do  them  justice  they  are  apt  to  be  ex- 
pansionists of  the  most  generous  kind.  The  remedy 
for  this  is  some  kind  of  manhood  suffrage,  some 
clause  in  the  church  charter  which  limits  the  power 
to  vote  to  what,  at  least  presumably,  is  an  age  of 
discretion.  It  seems  a  misfortune  that  when  young 
boys  or  girls  join  a  church,  oftener  than  not,  they 
come  at  a  bound  into  all  the  rights  and  privileges 
which  the  church  can  offer. 

These  are  matters  of  detail ;  and  yet  they  are 

1  S.  R.  Pattison,  paper  at  Baptist  Union  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  1869,  p.  7. 


124      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

not  unimportant.  Upon  them  all  the  pastor  will 
have  to  form  and  express  an  opinion.  In  our 
church  life,  as  much  as  anywhere  else,  is  it  true 
that  while  life  is  made  up  of  trifles,  life  itself  is  no 
trifle. 

I  have  set  a  high  value  upon  pastoral  example 
in  its  unconscious  influence  on  the  hearts  and 
minds  and  consciences  of  the  younger  people  in 
the  parish.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  exaggerate 
that  influence.  The  minister  who  remains  many 
years  in  one  charge  will  enjoy  its  fruits,  as  the 
transient  birds  of  passage — the  parochial  tramps 
— cannot.  Their  friend  and  counsellor  in  infancy, 
childhood,  and  youth,  he  will  seem  to  those  who 
grow  up  under  his  care  to  be  himself  a  part  of  the 
established  order  of  things.  To  adopt  the  fine 
words  of  an  Oxford  student,1  writing  in  praise  of 
his  ancient  college,  and  to  apply  them  to  the 
parish,  "  Here,  if  anywhere,  the  minister  may  hope 
to  hear  the  still  voice  of  truth,  to  penetrate  through 
the  little  transitory  questions  of  the  hour  to  the 
realities  which  abide  while  the  generations  come 
and  go."  If  he  has  a  delicate  sense  of  honor,  if 
he  is  high-minded  and  disinterested,  if  he  is,  to  the 
young  people,  incarnate  truth  and  justice  and  love, 
then  the  hour  will  never  come  when  the  influences 
which  he  exerts  will  cease.      On  the  other  hand, 

1  Professor  Frazer,  Oxford,  1899. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      125 

any  meanness  or  inconsistency  will  be  quickly 
marked,  and  not  he  but  the  very  cause  of  right- 
eousness itself  may  have  to  suffer  for  it.  Bernard 
Gilpin,  the  apostle  of  the  North,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  was  only  a  boy  when  to  his  father's  hall 
came  for  bed  and  board  one  evening,  a  preaching 
friar.  The  sermon  of  the  next  day  was  discounted 
in  advance  by  the  intoxication  of  the  supper  table  ; 
and  when  the  friar  in  his  discourse  waxed  eloquent 
in  exposing  the  sins  of  the  flesh,  the  boy  plucked 
his  father's  sleeve  and  asked  him  how  the  man 
dared  condemn  excesses  when  he  himself  had  been 
taken  to  bed  drunk  the  night  before.  We  have  no 
quicker,  and  I  had  almost  said  no  fairer,  critics  of 
conduct  than  the  young  people  in  our  congrega- 
tion. Certainly  there  are  none  who  with  such  in- 
stinctive appreciation  will  recognize  a  high  ideal 
of  manly  virtue,  and  themselves  be  swayed  and 
molded  by  it.  To  be  their  minister  seems  to  me 
an  incalculable  privilege.  In  the  early  French 
revolution  the  schoolboys  of  Bourges  formed  them- 
selves into  a  company,  wore  their  uniform,  learned 
their  exercises  and  marching  through  the  streets 
of  the  city  unfurled  a  banner  bearing  this  inscrip- 
tion, "  Tremblez,  tyrans,  nous grandirons  !  "  "  Trem- 
ble, tyrants,  we  shall  grow."  To  muster  and  mar- 
shall  the  ranks  of  growing  life  is  the  pastor's  office, 
and  I  know  of  none  that  is  more  inspiring.  The 
church  of  to-morrow  marches  there. 


126      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

This  mention  of  a  band  of  disciplined  volunteers 
leads  me  to  urge  that  we  should  be  judicious  in 
organizing  the  young  people  in  our  congregation. 
Let  us  not  add  to  the  already  exhausting  labors  of 
the  alphabet  by  starting  new  societies  calling  for 
new  arrangements  of  letters  to  set  forth  their  aims. 
As  a  rule,  it  seems  to  me  that,  just  as  the  poorer 
the  man  the  more  numerous  his  family,  so  the 
smaller  the  church  the  larger  is  likely  to  be  the 
number  of  petty  organizations — each  of  course 
with  its  title  and  its  badge — which  are  struggling 
for  an  existence,  when,  oftener  than  not,  they  had 
better  cease.  The  inscription  on  an  English  tomb- 
stone, "  Methuselah  Coney,  aged  two  weeks,"  in- 
voluntarily occurs  to  me  when  I  run  my  eye 
over  the  list  of  these  high-sounding  enterprises. 
"  Strengthen  the  things  that  remain  "  rather  than 
call  another  piece  of  inflated  feebleness  into  being. 
In  the  Church,  as  in  the  State,  what  we  need  is 
not  fresh  laws,  but  rather  that  what  we  already 
have  be  fairly  administered.  And  here  it  may  not 
be  out  of  place  to  utter  a  word  of  caution  against 
the  peril  of  inflicting  on  young  and  ignorant  minds 
conditions  that  can  for  the  present  mean  nothing 
to  them.     With  Mr.  Beecher  I  am  inclined  to  say  : 

I  am  opposed,  heartily  opposed,  to  the  imposition  that 
I  see  practised  on  children  by  attempting  to  make  them,  at 
nine,  ten,  eleven,  or  twelve  years  old,  do  things  and  feel 
things  that  belong  to  adult  life  and  do  not  belong  to  chil- 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE   YOUNG    PEOPLE      \2] 

dren.  The  idea  that  you  can  organize  them  and  bring  them 
to  pledges,  and  get  them  to  make  promises  and  put  them 
on  platforms  that  are  pre-eminently  out  of  their  reach,  it 
seems  to  me,  is  absolutely  absurd.1 

As  a  practical  conclusion  to  what  has  been  said 
about  the  relation  of  the  pastor  to  the  young  peo- 
ple who  have  been  brought  into  his  church,  I 
would  urge  that  he  keep  in  friendly  and  confiden- 
tial touch  with  them.  Once  a  year  let  him  meet 
all  who  have  been  added  to  the  church  in  each 
separate  year  and  so  give  to  them  a  distinct  inter- 
est in  one  another.  Let  the  meeting  be  at  the 
same  time  social  and  devotional  in  its  character. 
Let  the  attendance  be  limited  to  those  who  have 
been  mentioned  and  to  the  deacons  or  elders  of 
the  church.  Get  each  one  to  speak,  however 
briefly.  Have  light  refreshments  provided  and 
bright  music.  Let  the  minister's  own  address,  if 
he  makes  one,  be  earnest  and  faithful.  Each  such 
gathering  can  be  utilized  as  a  power  for  putting 
new  life  into  all  the  church  and  for  pushing  out 
on  aggressive  lines  of  Christian  work. 

I  may  also  recommend  that  each  pastor  have  in 
the  vestibule  of  his  church  a  pastor's  letter-box,  of 
which  he  alone  holds  the  key,  and  that  he  invite 
the  young  people  (of  course  not  by  any  means 
only  them)  to  write  to  him  on  any  questions  of 
faith  and    practice    calling   for  light.      But   while 

1  "  Yale  Lectures, "  II.,  185. 


128       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

these  simple  methods  are  referred  to,  I  must,  in 
justice  to  my  present  purpose,  add  that  the  par- 
ticular way  in  which  this  pastoral  influence  and 
this  friendly  touch  are  obtained  and  kept  up  seems 
to  me  altogether  secondary.  Every  man  must 
devise  his  own.  What  suits  one  cannot  possibly 
suit  all.  The  country  church  is  not  to  be  handled 
as  the  city  church  is.  The  less  cultured  are  not 
responsive  to  methods  which  succeed  with  the 
more  refined.  Of  the  true  pastor,  as  of  him  whose 
servant  he  is,  we  may  dare  to  say  that 

The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new, 
And  God  fulfills  himself  in  many  ways. 

We  have  now  spoken  of  the  minister  as  the 
friend  of  the  young  people  in  his  congregation 
and  as  their  pastor.  It  remains  for  me  to  deal 
with  a  subject  of  great  interest  alike  to  him  and  to 
them,  I  mean  the  minister  as  preacher. 

Hitherto  we  have  been  thinking  chiefly  of  how 
the  child,  the  boy,  the  girl,  the  young  life  in  the 
parish,  look  to  the  minister.  But  let  us  remember 
that  there  are  two  sides  to  everything.  Have  we 
ever  considered  the  reverse  of  this  and  asked  our- 
selves how  the  minister — the  preacher  let  us  say 
for  our  present  purpose — looks  to  the  child  ? 
"Your  baby  doesn't  disturb  me,"  said  a  minister 
who  was  vociferating  in  his  sermon  to  a  mother 
who  was  leaving  the  church  with  a  crying  infant. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      1 29 

"That  isn't  it,  sir,"  she  replied,  "you  disturb  my 
baby."  When  Tennyson  wrote  his  "Northern 
Farmer  "  we  learned,  almost  it  seemed  as  a  revela- 
tion, what  the  bucolic  mind  held  as  to  the  parson  : 

• '  An'  I  hallus  corned  to' s  choorch  afoor  my  Sally  wur  dead 
An'  eerd  un  a  bummin  awaay  loike  a  buzzard  clock  ower 

my  ye'  ed, 
An'  I  niver  knaw' d,  but  I  thowt  a  'adsummat  to  saay, 
An'    I   thowt  a  said  what   a   owt   to   '  a  said,  an'    I  corned 

awaay. ' ' 

In  the  same  way  one  cannot  help  hoping  that  the 
child's  laureate  will  some  day  interpret  for  us  the 
wide-open  eyes  and  calmly  wondering  look  with 
which  the  first  sermon  is  received.  The  young 
preacher  in  a  country  congregation  who  dared  to 
hold  on  with  his  sermon  half  an  hour  after  milking 
time  was  very  properly  informed  by  the  farmer's 
wife  that,  if  only  he  had  the  feelings  of  a  cow, 
under  these  trying  circumstances,  he  would  know 
better  when  to  stop.  The  minister,  if  he  has  kept 
fresh  and  natural  the  child's  heart,  will  need  no 
such  reproof.  He  will  hear  his  own  voice  with 
the  child's  ear  and  measure  his  own  address  by 
the  limited  rule  of  the  child's  power  of  attention. 

At  a  very  early  age  children  should  be  brought 
to  church.  To  the  church  first  ;  to  the  school 
second.  If  it  comes  to  be  a  question  whether  the 
boy  or  girl  should  go  to  the  morning  service  or  to 
the   school,  I   should  answer   without  any  hesita- 

1 


I30       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

tion,  to  the  service.  The  habit  of  attending  pub- 
lic worship  cannot  too  soon  be  begun.  The  neg- 
lect of  this,  coupled  with  the  unfortunate  hour  at 
which  many  of  our  Sunday-schools  meet, — noon, — 
has  done  much  to  break  the  connection  between 
the  young  people  and  the  church,  and  to  abolish 
that  fine  old  institution,  the  family  pew.  The  con- 
gregation dispersing  at  twelve  o'clock  meets  the 
children  coming  to  school.  And  it  may  very  well 
be  that  the  absence  of  so  large  a  proportion  of  our 
population  from  church  can  be  traced  to  this  fact. 
When  the  time  came  for  the  boy  to  leave  his  class, 
having  in  his  own  estimation  grown  too  old  to  go 
any  longer  to  school,  there  was  no  other  alterna- 
tive to  which  he  had  been  accustomed  than  to  go 
nowhere.  We  must  work  for  the  revival  of  the 
family  pew,  that  spectacle  of  solid  and  prosperous 
devotion  which  marks  the  British  as  distinguished 
from  the  American  congregation.  In  the  case  of 
very  young  children,  the  minister,  if  he  is  wise, 
will  invite  parents  to  bring  them,  and  the  mother, 
if  she  is  wise,  will  resist  the  temptation  to  take  the 
baby  to  the  very  front  pew,  so  as  to  disturb  the 
service  to  the  utmost  when  the  inevitable  cry 
comes.  She  will  be  content  for  the  time  to  be 
rather  a  doorkeeper  in  the  house  of  the  Lord. 
When  children  are  brought  to  the  service,  let  as 
much  liberty  as  possible  be  given  to  them.  I  hope 
it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  say  that   under  no  cir- 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      131 

cumstances  should  the  child  be  kept  awake.  If  it 
sleeps  it  will  do  well  for  itself,  and  better  perhaps 
for  all  the  rest  of  the  congregation.  Let  not  the 
minister  allow  himself  to  be  put  out  by  reason  of 
any  inattention  on  the  part  of  the  children.  They 
listen  quite  as  much,  in  proportion,  as  do  their 
elders,  but  they  have  not  yet  learned  how  behind 
a  mask  of  polite  toleration  to  conceal  a  mind  which 
is  a  thousand  miles  away.  Think  how  little  there 
is  in  the  ordinary  congregational  service  to  interest 
a  boy.  How  little  part  he  can  take  in  it.  I  believe 
that  Mr.  Beecher  is  right  when  he  says  : 

In  the  Episcopal  and  the  Roman  Catholic  churches  there 
is  something  for  children.  In  that  regard  these  churches 
are  far  beyond  us.  A  child  can  follow  the  service  in  the 
book,  can  make  responses,  can  read,  can  sing — and  there 
is  very  much  of  song  service  in  the  Episcopal  Church .  In 
ours  how  little  is  there  which  is  fitted  to  the  thought  of  the 
children.1 

Under  the  Puritan  rule  in  New  England  the 
ordinary  boy  seems  to  have  been  an  object  of  al- 
most perpetual  reprobation.  It  was  the  settled 
conviction  of  the  minister  that  foolishness  was 
bound  up  in  the  heart  of  the  child,  and  that  with 
him  and  the  tithing  man  did  it  rest  to  expel  the 
foolishness  and  correct  the  child.  The  boys  were 
seated  on  the  pulpit  stairs,  and  what  terrors  were 
not  conveyed  to  them  by  the  preacher's  word  were 

1  "Yale  Lectures,"  2,  190. 


132       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

carried  to  them  by  the  other  functionary's  rod. 
Above  them  stretched  the  gallery  with  its  wider 
spaces  and  its  greater  freedom,  but  only  when  they 
behaved  well  were  they  suffered  to  sit  there.  They 
persisted,  it  seems,  in  breaking  the  windows  in 
search  of  air ;  and  one  church  book  still  preserves 
this  resolution  on  its  pages:  "The  constables  are 
desired  to  take  notis  (notice)  of  the  persons  that 
open  the  windows  in  the  tyme  of  public  worship."  l 
Meanwhile  the  children,  panting  and  pent  in, 
were  not  really  inattentive.  Their  minds  were 
active  and  all  their  senses  quick.  We  ourselves 
may  remember  no  word  of  any  sermon  ever 
preached  in  our  hearing  in  those  tender  years,  but 
shall  we  ever  forget  the  peculiar  odor  of  the  sanc- 
tuary— the  church  smell ;  a  mixture  of  mildew  and 
moth  and  rust,  with  a  fair  proportion  of  last  Sun- 
day's atmosphere  carried  forward  to  this,  in  the 
one  place  where  air  seemed  to  be  as  changeless 
and  incapable  of  change  as  eternity  itself  ?  The 
boy  longing,  as  he  afterward  confesses,  for  the 
sounding  board  pendent  above  the  pulpit,  to  fall 
and  put  an  end  to  the  preacher  and  his  sermon, 
studying  the  knots  and  veins  in  the  woodwork, 
following  the  beetle's  droning  flight,  and  surren- 
dering himself  to  the  fascinating  machinations  of 
the  universal  spider,  is  himself  the  best  vindication 

1  Earle,  "New  England  Sabbaths,"  pp.  59,  61. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE       1 33 

of  his  intelligence.  All  he  asks  for  is  for  some- 
thing to  observe,  to  be  interested  in,  to  do.  It  is 
our  duty  to  meet  this  demand.1 

Having  brought  the  child  to  the  church,  let  us 
make  him  a  special  object  of  study.  Let  us  feed 
him  with  food  convenient  for  him.  Throughout 
the  service  there  should,  I  venture  to  think,  be 
more  variety  and  change.  The  congregation  should 
rise  and  sing  every  hymn,  and  there  should  be  a 
responsive  reading.  Our  service  is  often  open  to 
the  criticism  that  when  not  triste  it  is  unmeaning 
and  even  frivolous.  The  reading  of  the  Scriptures 
should  be  a  matter  of  very  careful  study.  En- 
courage the  use  of  Bibles  in  the  pew.  It  is  a  good 
suggestion  that  "  an  effort  should  be  made  to 
form  this  habit  in  our  juvenile  assemblies."  If 
necessary  during  the  reading,  by  a  word  or  two 
well  chosen,  explain  what  to  the  young  and  inex- 
perienced may  be  perplexing. 

Never  fail  to  remember  the  family  in  your 
prayer.  Are  there  boys  and  girls  away  from  home 
at  school  ?  Are  there  others  now,  for  the  first 
time,  engaging  in  business  ?  Has  some  social  stage 
been  reached  ?  Are  there  wedding  bells  in  the 
air,  or  the  cry  of  the  first-born,  or  has  some  little 
grave  been  dug  in  the  cemetery  ?  Do  not  fail  to 
make  tender  reference  to  all  these. 

1  Lucy  Larcom,  "A  New  England  Girlhood." 


134      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

The  singing  should  always  attract  the  young 
people,  and  much  can  be  said  in  favor  of  the  plan, 
often  carried  out,  I  understand,  in  the  north  of 
England,  of  introducing  in  some  part  of  the  service 
a  children's  hymn,  to  be  sung  by  the  children 
alone,  and  for  which  due  preparation  must  be  made 
through  the  Sunday-school. 

Now  as  to  the  sermon.  If  our  reliance  is  placed 
upon  the  ordinary  discourse,  then  we  should  en- 
deavor to  have  something  in  it  which  will  attract 
the  children,  and  arrest  the  attention  of  the  young 
people.  This  was  the  practice  of  Philip  Dod- 
dridge and  John  Wesley.1  To  revert  for  a  moment 
to  a  point  on  which  I  have  already  touched,  think 
how  the  sermon  appears  to  the  younger  members 
of  the  congregation.  Mr.  Beecher  says  that  he 
does  not  believe  that  he  ever  understood  a  single 
thing  that  his  father  preached  about,  till  he  was 
ten  years  old.2  To  Lucy  Larcom,  the  preacher 
"  seemed  to  be  trying  to  explain  the  Bible  by  put- 
ting it  into  long  words." 3  These  are  no  doubt  good 
samples  of  the  impression  which  even  superior  ser- 
mons made  upon  superior  children.  From  these 
you  may  descend  to  the  lowest  point,  where  you 
will  find  the  young  British  plowboy,  who  frankly 
confesses  that  when  the  text  is  announced  "  I  puts 
my  feet  up  on  the  seat,  and  I  thinks  about  naw- 

1  Trumbull,  333.  2  "Yale  Lectures,"  189. 

3  "A  New  England  Girlhood,"  55. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      1 35 

thing  at  all."  This  humiliating  consummation 
preachers  must  determine  to  ward  off  by  all  legiti- 
mate means.  Even  a  child  can  be  attracted,  if  not 
held,  by  a  descriptive  or  historical  sermon.  By 
all  means  let  us  use  concrete  words,  have  illustra- 
tions, nor  be  afraid  of  homely  and  familiar  figures. 
It  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  our  young  hearer 
should  be  able  to  understand  all  we  say.  Probably 
no  one  does  that.  Possibly  we  do  not  ourselves. 
But  there  should  be  hooks  in  every  sermon  to 
which  the  young  people  can  hang  an  idea  ;  and  in 
every  green  pasture  of  the  pulpit,  daisies,  and  even 
dandelions,  for  the  children  to  pick. 

Of  late  years  the  plan  of  preceding  the  regular 
sermon  with  a  five-minute  address  to  the  children 
in  sermon  form  has  been  growing  in  favor.  To  it 
there  are  only  two  serious  objections,  the  first, 
that  many  excellent  preachers  have  no  genius  for 
speaking  to  children  ;  the  second,  which  is  even 
more  weighty,  that  the  sermon  proper  comes  to  be 
looked  at  as  no  business  of  the  children's.  So 
one  of  them  remarked  after  a  service  of  the  kind 
in  London,  "  It  seems  as  if  we  ought  to  go  when 
our  sermon  is  over."  They  could  have  found  a 
sufficiently  strong  precedent  for  doing  so,  since 
the  catechumens,  in  the  early  church,  used  to  be 
dismissed  when  their  part  of  the  public  worship 
was  concluded.  But  if  one  has  the  art  of  address- 
ing children  it  is  probable  that  this  second  objec- 


136       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

tion  will  not  hold.  The  preacher  who  can  do  that 
is  not  likely  to  preach  any  sermon  in  which  there 
are  no  points  of  interest  to  the  child's  mind. 
Subjects  for  these  five-minute  sermons  can  be 
found  in  the  volumes  into  which  some  of  the  best 
of  them  have  been  gathered  and  from  the  sugges- 
tions of  one's  own  reading  and  observation. 

But  apart  altogether  from  these  efforts  there 
should  be  now  and  then,  and  I  think  more  fre- 
quently than  has  been  usual  with  us,  a  special 
service  for  the  children  of  the  Sunday-school.  In 
the  times  of  Robert  Raikes  and  Hannah  More  the 
custom  was  to  bring  the  scholars  to  the  church 
and  seat  them  by  themselves  under  the  care  of 
the  teachers.  Out  of  this  probably  came  the 
Sunday-school  gallery,  from  which  I  in  childhood, 
looking  up  at  it  from  the  family  pew  in  a  country 
meeting-house,  formed  my  earliest  conceptions  of 
the  Spanish  Inquisition.  Especially  do  I  recall 
the  almost  fiendish  cunning  which  the  teacher  by 
long  practice  acquired  in  stinging  the  face  of  the 
sleeping  or  restless  boy  by  means  of  the  pocket 
handkerchief  used  as  a  whiplash.  When  this  in- 
strument of  torture  disappeared,  to  it  succeeded,  in 
many  cases,  the  separate  service  where  the  scholars 
were  addressed  by  their  teachers,  who  had  (or 
thought  they  had)  an  aptitude  for  that  exercise. 
Much  can  be  said  in  favor  of  this  service,  and 
especially  when  from  it  the  boy  or  girl  passes  in 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      1 3/ 

due  time  to  the  family  seat  and  the  ordinary  wor- 
ship of  the  congregation. 

Where  the  separate  service  is  held,  whether  as 
an  occasional  or  as  a  regular  thing,  there  should 
be  preparation  for  it  as  careful  and  as  thorough  as 
that  which  is  given  to  any  other.  For  a  few  mo- 
ments, therefore,  let  us  consider  the  service  and 
the  sermon. 

Let  the  first  aim  be  to  put  life  into  every  part  of 
the  service.  Let  the  Bible  be  read,  but  not  too 
many  verses.  It  should  be  explained  as  it  is  read. 
The  prayer  should  be  simple  and  earnest  and  not 
exposed  to  the  comment  of  one  long-suffering  lad, 
who  complained  that  "  the  minister  had  lost  his 
amen  and  could  not  find  it  again."  When  Thacke- 
ray listened  to  the  singing  of  the  charity  children 
in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  he  declared,  "  It  is  the 
finest  thing  in  the  world,  finer  than  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence."1  So  it  is,  and  so  in  its 
own  measure  is  the  singing  of  the  children  any- 
where. For  this  very  reason  let  us  make  the 
most  of  it.  The  tunes  of  many  of  our  popular 
hymns  seem  to  be  better  than  the  hymns  them- 
selves. It  must  be  confessed  that  they  are  often 
halting  in  their  metre,  unreal  in  their  emotion, 
artificial  in  their  sentiment,  and  in  their  doctrine 
shallow  or  unsound.      When  a  healthy  boy  sings 

1  "  Motley's  Letters,"  I  :  253. 


I38       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

with  vigorous  lungs,  "  I  want  to  be  an  angel," 
nothing  is  further  from  his  thoughts.  Even  the 
exquisite  child's  hymn, 

I  think  when  I  read  the  sweet  story  of  old, 
When  Jesus  was  here  among  men, 

has  been  criticised  for  giving  the  conception  of  an 
absent  Saviour,  whereas  he  is  as  near  to  the  chil- 
dren now  as  when  in  Judea  he  held  them  in  his 
arms  and  gave  to  them  his  blessing.  I  venture  to 
think  that  some  at  least  of  Doctor  Watts's  "  Divine 
Songs  for  Children,"  although  written  by  a  con- 
firmed bachelor,  are  among  the  happiest  that  we 
have,  and  certainly  I  should  say  that  the  hymns 
which  we  love  best  in  our  ordinary  service  will  in 
many  cases  be  popular  with  young  people. 

The  sermon  or  address  demands  to  be  consid- 
ered as  our  last  point. 

The  importance  of  knowing  how  to  preach  to 
children  and  of  frequently  doing  so,  needs  to  be 
brought  home  to  every  minister's  heart.  "  Spend 
an  hour,"  was  Wesley's  injunction  to  his  preachers, 
"spend  an  hour  a  week  with  the  children  in  every 
large  town,  whether  you  like  it  or  not."  l  He  may 
have  learned  from  Count  Zinzendorf  and  the  Mo- 
ravians how  useful  a  practice  this  was.  The 
count  and  his  fellow-religionists  preached  directly 
to  the  children,  and  a  remarkable  revival  among 

1  Tyerman,  "  Life  of  Wesley,"  3  :  23. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      1 39 

them  had  its  rise  in  a  discourse  to  girls  by  Zinzen- 
dorf  himself.1  Let  no  one  allow  himself  to  think 
that  there  is  any  condescension  on  his  part  in 
doing  this.  At  no  other  time  in  all  one's  ministry 
will  he  be  treading  closer  in  the  footprints  of  the 
Master.  And  never  will  he  be  in  better  company. 
Mr.  Spurgeon  declared  that  for  himself  he  felt 
that  he  could  preach  much  more  readily  to  the  low 
and  groveling  minds  of  grown-up  people  than  to 
the  purer  and  sublimer  minds  of  children,  who 
seemed  to  be  nearer  heaven,  better  and  simpler.2 
"  We  call  it  coming  down,"  said  Horace  Bushnell, 
"  when  we  undertake  the  preaching  to  children  ; 
whereas  it  is  coming  up,  rather,  out  of  the  subter- 
ranean hills,  darkness,  intricacies,  and  dungeon- 
like profundities  of  old,  grown-up  sin,  to  speak  to 
the  bright  daylight  creatures  of  trust  and  sweet 
affinities  and  easy  convictions."  3 

It  should  be  enough  to  recall  the  men  who  have 
made  a  special  practice  of  the  sermon  to  children 
to  convince  any  one  how  honorable  a  work  it  is. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  Protestant  revival  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  leaders  were  active  here. 
The  persuasive  tones  of  Philip  Doddridge,  the  in- 
tense devotion  of  John  Wesley,  and  Richard  Cecil's 
rare  eloquence,  were  pressed  into  the  service.  The 
succession,  from  that  time  to  this,  has  never  been 

1  Trumbull,  p.  106.  *Ibid.,  p.  34°. 

3  "Life,"  p.  504. 


140      THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

broken.  In  the  earlier  years  of  our  century  Alex- 
ander Fletcher's  annual  discourse  to  children  was 
one  of  the  events  of  the  year  in  the  city  of  London. 
John  Todd  did  no  better  work  in  all  his  ministry 
than  when  he  preached  his  virile  sermons  to  young 
people  and  then  gave  them  to  the  press.  The 
ministry  of  Dr.  Stephen  H.  Tyng,  in  New  York, 
was  in  no  small  degree  a  ministry  to  the  young ; 
and,  in  Philadelphia,  Dr.  Richard  Newton  became 
for  his  generation  and  for  ours  the  model  preacher 
to  children.  It  is  remarkable  how  often  the  men 
who  have  excelled  in  this  enviable  art  have  been 
men  rich  in  the  spirit  of  St.  John :  Frederic 
Denison  Maurice,  the  remembrance  of  whose  face 
in  Lincoln's  Inn  Chapel  is  to  me  a  constant  bene- 
diction ;  the  gentle  Andrew  Bonar  ;  William  Arnot, 
with  a  mind  like  a  flower  garden,  as  fragrant  as  it 
was  bright ;  and  John  Cairns,  of  Berwick,  whose 

Strength  was  as  the  strength  of  ten, 
Because  his  heart  was  pure. 

Space  will  not  allow  me  to  add  to  the  list.  Enough 
if  I  remind  my  readers  that  it  contains  the  names 
of  men  from  all  the  churches  whom  the  church 
universal  delights  to  honor. 

To  preach  to  children  is  not  easy.  "  My  chil- 
dren's sermons,"  said  Doctor  Newton,  "  cost  me 
more  time  and  labor  than  any  others  I  preach."  ! 

1  Trumbull,  p.  389. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE       I4I 

Nor  is  it  given  to  every  minister  to  excel  here. 
At  a  Sunday-school  Convention  held  in  Plymouth 
Church,  at  the  time  when  Mr.  Beecher  was  in  his 
prime,  he  was  called  upon  for  an  address.  In  the 
course  of  his  remarks  he  confessed  that  he  never 
felt  at  ease  in  addressing  children.  His  mission 
seemed  to  be  to  grown-up  people,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  the  children  to  others.  Scarcely 
had  he  said  so  when  Dr.  Stephen  H.  Tyng  entered 
the  church  and  took  his  place  on  the  platform. 
Mr.  Beecher  went  on  to  give  a  beautiful  picture  of 
the  work  of  a  Sunday-school  teacher.  This  part 
Doctor  Tyng  heard,  and  when  his  turn  came  he 
referred  in  the  most  flattering  terms  to  the  manner 
in  which  Mr.  Beecher  had  covered  the  whole 
ground.  He  then  went  on  to  say,  in  the  most 
blissful  ignorance  of  the  personal  application  of  his 
words,  that  he  always  preferred  in  his  choice  of 
pastoral  work  one  child  to  two  adults,  adding : 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  the  devil  would  never  ask 
anything  more  of  a  minister  than  to  have  him  feel 
that  his  mission  was  chiefly  to  the  grown-up  mem- 
bers of  his  congregation,  while  some  one  else  was 
to  look  after  the  children."  The  crowded  audience 
shook  with  subdued  mirth  while  Doctor  Tyng, 
wholly  unconscious  of  the  point  of  his  remark, 
continued,  pointing  to  the  door  of  the  church. 

"  I  can  see  the  devil  looking  in  at  that  door  and 
saying  to  the  minister  on  this  platform  :  '  Now  you 


142       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

just  stand  there  and  fire  away  at  the  old  folks  and 
I'll  go  around  and  steal  away  the  little  ones.'' 
The  audience  broke  into  a  peal  of  laughter  which 
utterly  astounded  good  Doctor  Tyng.  Yet  as  a 
matter  of  fact  both  he  and  Mr.  Beecher  were  right. 
One  star  differeth  from  another  star  in  service  as 
well  as  in  glory. 

Still,  the  qualifications  on  the  part  of  the  minis- 
ter for  preaching  to  children  are  just  such  as  he 
will  need  in  all  his  pulpit  work.  He  must  be 
earnest.  He  must  be  sympathetic.  That  is  to 
say,  his  aim  must  be  not  to  amuse  so  much  as  to 
make  better,  and  he  must  put  himself  in  the  place 
of  his  hearers,  and  first  feel  with,  so  that  he  may 
also  feel  for  them.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  this 
could  have  been  the  case  with  a  certain  London 
minister  who  took  for  his  text,  "  Their  houses  shall 
be  full  of  doleful  creatures,"  1  and  for  his  theme, 
"  Disagreeable  Children." 

A  good  text  will  illustrate  afresh  the  truth  of 
the  proverb,  "It  is  the  first  step  that  counts." 
The  text  should  be  short,  simple,  and  striking.2 

"Talitha  Cumi "  is  the  text  of  one  of  Dean 
Stanley's  sermons  in  Westminster  Abbey,  where 
he  loved  to  meet  the  children  and  to  talk  to  them.3 
A  little  mystery,  a  challenge  to  the  fancy  of  the 
hearer,  will  often  be  useful  in  attracting  attention. 

1  Isa.  13  :  21.  2  Trumbull,  351,  362. 

3W.  G.  Blackie,  "For  the  Work  of  the  Ministry,"  p.  196. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      1 43 

Nowhere  can  better  texts  be  found  than  in  the 
great  green  book  of  nature,  to  which  Jesus  turned 
when  he  said,  "  Consider  the  lilies,  Ziowthey  grow." 

Equally  important  is  the  subject  of  the  address. 
It  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  it  be  childish.  The 
popular  book  with  boys  is  the  book  which  is  heroic  ; 
and  I  am  afraid  they  prefer  the  prodigal  son  who 
went  so  far  afield,  to  the  brother  who  stayed  at 
home  and  never  gave  his  father  any  trouble,  nor 
gave  him,  for  the  matter  of  that,  much  of  anything 
else. 

What  is  essential  in  your  theme  is  the  human 
element.  The  young  hearer,  as  much  as  the  Ro- 
man actor,  counts  nothing  that  is  human  foreign 
to  him.  For  this  reason,  Joseph  and  David  and 
Daniel  are  favorites  forever.  Dean  Stanley  could 
put  life  into  an  old  legend  ;  and  his  story  of  the 
dying  match-boy  has  passed  into  a  classic. 

As  to  the  treatment  of  the  sermon,  I  should  say 
that  one  idea  is,  as  a  rule,  enough.  Of  older  peo- 
ple, even,  is  this  not  also  true  ?  If  you  can  do  it 
skillfully,  bring  that  one  idea  out  of  the  text  by 
means  of  question  and  answer.  To  do  this  well  is 
great  art.  It  is  wise  sometimes  to  introduce  your- 
self by  a  question  ;  but  be  on  your  guard  when 
you  do  this.  The  answer  may  not  always  be  much 
to  your  mind.  "  What  would  you  do,"  inquired 
one  preacher,  "  if  you  were  compelled  to  stand 
here  before  so  many  bright  boys  and  girls,  and  had 


144       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

nothing  to  say  ?  "  And  the  irrepressible  small  boy 
replied,  without  a  moment's  hesitation,  "I'd  keep 
quiet." 

Dr.  A.  A.  Bonar,  one  Sunday  evening  in  June, 
appeared  at  a  school  in  Edinburgh.  It  was  the 
fifth  school  that  he  had  addressed  that  day ;  and 
some  of  the  scholars  had  previously  heard  him 
more  than  once,  being  lured  to  this  unusual  effort 
of  self-sacrifice  by  the  prospect  of  the  impending 
school-treats.  They  were  ready  to  vote  early  and 
often.  That  day  the  good  doctor  had  used  to  ex- 
cellent effect  his  famous  children's  address  from 
the  text,  "  Like  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wing."  It  began  with  the  question 
"  Did  any  of  you,  dear  little  boys  or  girls,  ever  see 
a  hen?  "  But  even  of  a  good  thing  it  is  possible 
to  have  too  much,  and  so  when  the  usual  intro- 
ductory question  was  launched,  the  repeaters  in 
that  evening  school,  being  primed  for  the  purpose, 
answered,  "  No,  sir,  no  !  We  never  saw  a  hen — 
never  one  of  us  ever  saw  a  hen  ! " 

The  tone  of  the  address  should  be  bright,  with- 
out being  frivolous.  Do  not  misrepresent  the  feel- 
ing of  our  heavenly  Father  toward  children. 
"Thou  God  seest  me,"  is  a  good  text  to  preach 
from,  but  remember  that  it  has  in  it  no  terrifying 
thought  of  God  detecting  and  punishing  sin.  "  It 
occurs  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  pathetic 
of  Scripture  stories,  telling  of  Divine  compassion 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE   YOUNG    PEOPLE      I45 

for  those  who  have  found  man's  tender  mercies 
cruel,"  and  it  commemorates  the  simple  faith  of 
the  outcast  Hagar,  when  for  her,  under  the  present 
care  of  God,  "  the  desert  rejoiced  and  blossomed 
as  the  rose."  J  The  harrowing  and  horrible  should, 
as  a  rule,  be  avoided,  and  it  is  no  longer  desirable 
in  the  interests  of  good  citizenship  or  sound  life 
insurance  that  all  the  good  should  die  young,  even 
though  that  might  be  the  fashion  in  New  England 
in  the  days  of  Cotton  Mather. 

The  moral, — and  to  every  successful  sermon  to 
children  there  must  be  a  moral,  uttered  or  unex- 
pressed,— may  very  well  be  distributed  throughout 
the  address  rather  than  concentrated  at  the  close. 
Put  there,  it  runs  a  chance  of  being  entirely  neg- 
lected. When  Doctor  Robertson,  of  Irvine,  preach- 
ing to  the  street  Arabs  of  Glasgow,  finished  his 
story  and  began  to  apply  it,  one  of  them  bade  him 
shut  up  with  his  moral  and  give  them  another 
story.  "  I  learned  from  that  rascal,"  said  he,  "to 
wrap  the  moral  well  in  the  heart  of  the  story ;  not 
to  put  it  as  a  sting  into  the  tail."  In  the  same 
spirit  as  this  street  waif,  a  little  girl  in  a  much 
more  genteel  circle  of  society  confided  to  her 
mother  that  she  liked  their  new  minister — "  because 
he  has  no  morals." 

Yet  I  must  add,  with  the  accent  of  conviction, 


1  Mrs.  Carus-Wilson,  "Unseal  the  Book,"  p.  69. 
K 


I46      THE   MINISTRY   OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

that  in  every  address  to  children  the  element  of 
instruction  should  be  found.  An  English  bishop 
has  lately  been  pleading  for  "  teaching  sermons," 
and  one  reason  why  men  are  not  more  attracted  to 
the  churches  is  probably  to  be  found  in  a  neglect 
of  this  truth  that  we  must  educate  the  minds  of 
our  congregation  as  well  as  their  hearts.  The 
same  holds  true  with  younger  audiences. 

As  to  the  manner  and  spirit  of  the  sermon,  our 
first  and  last  insistence  would  frame  itself  into 
the  injunction,  Be  natural.  Let  us  not  affect  sim- 
plicity, let  us  not  pretend  to  feelings  which  we  do 
not  have,  and  never  make  the  fatal  blunder  of 
talking  down  to  children.  The  simplicity  which  I 
am  commending  is  that  of  Reginald  Heber,  of 
whom  the  little  child  said  :  "  Oh,  I  like  him  very 
much,  and  he  told  me  a  good  many  things,  but  I 
don't  think  he  knows  much  more  than  I  do."  To 
speak  like  that  is  to  recall  Pascal's  eulogy  of  the 
supremely  good  book,  "  Every  one  thinks  he  could 
have  written  it  himself." 

We  shall  do  well  to  cultivate  the  art  of  speaking 
in  words  which  are  short  and  concrete.  The  ad- 
dress which  began,  "  My  dear  children,  I  do  not 
propose,  on  the  present  occasion,  to  detain  you 
with  any  preliminary  remarks  of  a  recondite  or 
abstruse  character,"  like  the  Chinese  criminal, 
carried  its  death  sentence  written  on  its  forefront. 

On  the  other  hand,  John  Wesley,  the  greatest 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    YOUNG    PEOPLE      I47 

ecclesiastical  general  in  the  Protestant  church, 
prepared  a  sermon  to  children  in  which  he  used 
no  word  having  more  than  two  syllables,  and  many 
other  preachers  distinguished  in  the  annals  of  the 
pulpit  have  done  the  same.  There  is  no  better 
example  as  to  style  than  that  of  Dr.  Samuel  Cox, 
who  found,  in  revising  his  sermons  to  children, 
"  clusters  of  twenty  and  thirty,  or  even  forty  and 
fifty  words  of  one  syllable,"  and  who  commends 
the  simplest  and  most  colloquial  English." 

So  much  has  been  written  of  late  on  the  subject 
of  preaching  to  children  that  it  looks  as  though  at 
length  the  church  were  indeed  waking  up  to  its 
neglected  opportunity.  The  published  volumes  of 
sermons  preached  to  young  people  form  a  little 
library  of  themselves.  The  counsels  and  direc- 
tions on  the  subject  in  homiletical  text-books  are 
wise  and  weighty,  and  no  doubt,  in  common  with 
the  counsels  and  directions  for  all  homiletical 
work,  alternately  inspire  us  with  emulation  and 
overshadow  us  with  despair. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  at  the  feet  of  the  one  perfect 
Model  that  each  one  of  us  must  sit  and  listen  and 
learn.  Not  only  the  soldiers,  impotent  to  arrest 
him,  but  equally  the  little  children  held  willing 
captives  in  his  arms,  bid  us  acknowledge  that 
"never  man  spake  like  this  man." 


THE    MINISTER   AND   THE    SUNDAY- 
SCHOOL 


A  comparison  of  the  Sunday-school  of  the  earlier  times 
and  the  present  day.  The  minister  must  adjust  his  relation 
to  the  Sunday-school.  His  relation  to  the  school  as  a 
whole.  The  minister  is  the  pastor  of  the  school.  His 
relation  to  the  officers  of  the  school.  He  must  advise  and 
supervise.  His  relation  to  the  teachers  of  the  school.  An 
intellectual  influence  a  spiritual  power.  Benefit  of  the 
work  to  himself. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

How  shall  we  define  the  Sunday-school  ?  A 
century  of  experience  has  changed  our  conception 
of  the  Sunday-school  so  radically  that  to-day  we 
scarcely  recognize  it  as  the  same  thing  that  it  was 
when  Robert  Raikes  and  Hannah  More  began 
their  philanthropic  work  in  the  lanes  of  Gloucester 
and  the  villages  of  Somersetshire.  Where  can 
you  find,  in  England  or  America,  a  parallel  to  the 
picture  of  the  opening  of  the  school  at  Blagden, 
in  the  west  of  England,  which  we  have  in  Hannah 
More's  "  Mendip  Annals  "  ? l 

In  the  beginning  of  October,  1795,  we  opened  one  of  the 
largest,  most  affecting,  and  interesting  schools  we  had  yet 
encountered,  composed  of  a  hundred  and  seventy  young 
people,  the  greater  part  from  eleven  to  twenty  years  of  age. 
It  was  an  affecting  sight.  Several  of  the  grown-up  youths 
had  been  tried  at  the  last  assizes.  There  were  the  children 
of  a  person  lately  condemned  to  be  hanged,  many  thieves, 
all  ignorant,  profane,  and  vicious  beyond  belief.  Not  one 
out  of  the  one  hundred  and  seventy  could  make  any  reply 
to  the  question,   ■ '  Who  made  you  ? ' ' 

To-day  we  have  reached  the  opposite  extreme, 

!PP.  168,  169. 

151 


152       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  some  of  our  Sunday- 
schools  are  cheerful  and  sociable  children's  clubs 
for  the  promotion  of  pleasant  intercourse,  the  cir- 
culation of  popular  literature,  the  cultivation  of 
kindly  feeling  among  the  families  of  the  congrega- 
tion, and,  incidentally,  the  study,  not  of  the  Bible, 
but  of  lesson  notes  more  or  less  connected  with  it. 

These  extremes  have  certainly  one  thing  in 
common.  The  Sunday-school  of  Hannah  More 
was  strictly  parochial,  and  the  Sunday-school  of 
to-day  is  the  same  in  the  sense  that  it  keeps  largely 
within  the  bounds  of  the  separate  congregations. 
Free  though  we  may  be,  if  we  live  in  America, 
from  the  parochial  divisions  which  the  State  marks 
out  in  the  old  country,  yet  our  own  congregational 
bounds  are  of  the  same  nature,  and,  while  every 
aggressive  Sunday-school  by  its  agencies  reaches 
out  beyond  these  bounds,  still  it  remains  sub- 
stantially true  that  "  the  Sunday-school  may  be 
defined  as  the  church  and  congregation,  especially 
children,  meeting  on  Sunday  for  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures."  J 

When  it  is  faithful  to  its  office  the  Sunday- 
school  is  much  more  like  the  early  Christian 
assemblages,  as  they  are  described  by  Justin  Mar- 
tyr, for  instance,  than  is  our  modern  congrega- 
tional gathering  for  public  worship.     Its  keynote 

1  Judson,  "The  Institutional  Church,"  p.  104. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 53 

is  instruction.  No  limit  of  age,  of  understanding, 
or  of  condition,  should  for  one  moment  be  recog- 
nized. 

The  Sunday-school,  then,  is  not  so  much  a 
branch  of  congregational  work  as  it  is  the  congre- 
gation itself.  And  the  minister  stands  in  just  the 
same  relation  to  it  as  he  does  to  the  congregation, 
understanding  by  the  word  "  congregation  "  the 
whole  number  of  those  who  regularly  come  under 
his  spiritual  influence. 

How  this  truth  has  been  obscured,  lost  sight  of, 
finally  denied  altogether,  history  bears  melan- 
choly witness.  The  struggling  and  scattered 
church  of  the  first  days  was,  as  Doctor  Trum- 
bull says  :  l 

Unable  to  enforce  a  uniform  church-school  system  in  all 
communities  alike  with  carefully  graded  instruction  from 
the  primary  class  to  the  divinity  school.  The  best  that  it 
could  do  was  to  provide  in  every  local  church  gathering  for 
the  catechetical  instruction  of  the  young,  including  the 
children  of  all  believers  and  all  other  children  who  could 
be  brought  under  its  care.  .  .  Individual  Christians  were 
forward  and  active  in  efforts  to  reach  and  to  teach  the 
young  whenever  and  wherever  they  might  do  so. 

But  the  growth  of  the  hierarchy  in  numbers, 
power,  and  assumption  gradually  changed  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  early  church.  The  ministry  claimed 
the  exclusive  right  to  instruct  and  then  failed  to 

1  "Vale  Lectures,"  p.  48. 


154      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

do  it.  Romanist  and  Protestant,  State  Church- 
man and  Nonconformist  alike,  lay  under  the  male- 
diction of  the  Master,  "  Woe  unto  you,  lawyers  ! 
for  ye  have  taken  away  the  key  of  knowledge  :  ye 
entered  not  in  yourselves,  and  them  that  were 
entering  in  ye  hindered."  1 

Confining  ourselves  to  the  area  covered  by  the 
modern  Sunday-school  movement,  we  find  abun- 
dant proof  in  Great  Britain  and  America  that  the 
woe  was  well  deserved.  The  opposition  of  the 
British  clergy  to  that  movement  in  its  early  days 
was  often  undisguised  and  fierce.  "  Sunday- 
schools,"  says  Sir  Charles  Reed,  "  were  attacked 
by  prelates  in  the  pulpit.  The  Bishop  of  Roches- 
ter notably  denounced  the  movement  and  urged 
the  clergy  not  to  support  it,  and  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  was  the  first  man  in  that  day  to  call 
the  bishops  together  to  consider  whether  some- 
thing could  not  be  done  to  stop  this  great  enter- 
prise." 2  "  Later  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland  and 
the  Congregationalists  of  New  England  were  rep- 
resented among  the  opponents  of  the  Sunday- 
school  as  it  battled  its  way  into  deserved  honor." 

The  clerical  mind,  here  as  in  other  matters,  was 
slow  to  change.  There  were  from  the  first  illus- 
trious exceptions  to  the  dislike  or  distrust  with 
which  the  Sunday-school  was    regarded,   but  the 

1  Luke  II  :  52.  2  Trumbull,  pp.  114,  115. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 55 

average  clergyman,  when  he  ceased  to  persecute, 
did  what  is  little  if  anything  better,  he  patronized. 
"  Within  this  month,"  wrote  Mr.  Raikes  in  1787,1 
"  the  minister  of  my  parish  has  at  last  conde- 
scended to  give  me  assistance  in  this  laborious 
work,  which  I  have  now  carried  on  for  six  years 
with  little  or  no  support.  He  chooses  that  the 
children  should  come  to  church  both  morning  and 
evening."  The  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  at  his  visita- 
tion in  July,  1786,  ventured  so  far  as  to  say,  with 
genuine  episcopal  caution,  that  "  he  doubted  not, 
with  proper  management  and  under  the  inspection 
of  the  parochial  clergy,  Sunday-schools  might  be 
productive  of  great  good  among  the  children  of 
the  poor  throughout  the  diocese."  Such  a  man 
would  have  patronized  the  angels  of  the  Advent 
and  faintly  approved  of  the  Declaration  of'  Inde- 
pendence, always,  of  course,  "  under  the  inspection 
of  the  parochial  clergy."  The  nutter  in  the  eccle- 
siastical dovecots  may  be  imagined  when  one  of 
the  most  liberal  and  devoted  of  the  Mendip  clergy 
needed  to  write  : 

I  beg  to  state  that  the  plans  for  instructing  the  children 
and  their  older  relations  are  circumscribed  by  every  pre- 
caution which  appears  to  me  needful  or  practicable  in  order 
to  guard  against  the  smallest  abuse  or  irregularity.  The 
whole  economy  of  the  school  is  under  my  direction  and 


1  Gregory,  "  Robert  Raikes,  Journalist  and  Philanthropist,"  p. 
136. 


I56       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

control,  and  nothing  is  done  but  what  I,  with  my  whole 
heart  and  to  the  best  of  my  dispassionate  judgment,  ap- 
prove. l 

So,  although  with  dignified  deliberativeness,  the 
clergy  came  to  acquiesce  in  the  Sunday-school 
movement.  No  doubt  this  was  owing  in  part  to 
the  fact  that  the  queen  herself  sent  for  Raikes  to 
hear  from  his  own  lips  "  by  what  accident  a  thought 
which  promised  so  much  benefit  to  the  lower  order 
of  people  as  the  institution  of  Sunday-schools  was 
suggested  to  his  mind."  At  Windsor,  under  the 
shadow  of  the  royal  castle,  "  the  ladies  of  fashion 
passed  their  Sundays  in  teaching  the  poorest  chil- 
dren." There  was  a  fair  prospect  that  Sunday- 
schools,  as  the  eighteenth  century  wore  to  its 
close,  would  become  as  popular  with  the  aristocracy 
as  in  our  own  times  slumming  has  been.  The 
vagaries  of  fashion  sometimes  carry  even  her  to 
the  limits  of  serious  usefulness. 

The  British  clergy  were  loyal  to  the  royal  ex- 
ample. The  name  of  Mr.  Raikes  became  "a  name 
that  every  clergyman  should  highly  reverence." 
He  was  eulogized  as  a  patriotic  and  virtuous  citi- 
zen to  whom  the  present  generation  should  "  raise  a 
monument  of  gratitude."  He  was  compared  with 
Jenner,  who  had  recently  benefited  the  whole 
nation  by  introducing  vaccination.  The  clergy 
might  now  safely  praise  the  man  who  basked  in 

1  "  Mendip  Annals,"  p.  188. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL      I  57 

the  sunshine  of  the  royal  approval  and  who  was 
put  side  by  side  with  the  physician  who  had  warded 
off  the  small-pox. 

In  America,  the  progress  of  the  Sunday-school 
movement  was  almost  as  difficult,  and  from  sub- 
stantially the  same  causes.  The  birth  of  the  Amer- 
ican Sunday-school  Union  was  probably  under  very 
humble  circumstances.  A  colored  woman,  in  1793, 
started  a  Sunday-school  in  New  York.  Visitors 
to  the  schools  of  Robert  Raikes  gave  shape  to  this 
and  other  voluntary  enterprises.  A  minister  from 
London  put  enthusiasm  into  the  work  in  Philadel- 
phia. But  even  at  this  time  a  young  girl  who 
dared  to  gather  a  little  school  in  the  galleries  of 
her  home  church  in  Norwich  Town,  Connecticut, 
was  forbidden  to  desecrate  the  day  or  the  place  by 
her  unsanctioned  experiment.  She  was  driven 
even  from  the  schoolhouse  to  which  she  had  with- 
drawn, and  compelled  at  last  to  take  refuge  on  the 
church  steps.  From  her  baffled  but  victorious 
endeavor  sprang  a  school  which  has  already  sent 
out  twenty-six  ministers  and  missionaries,  several 
of  them  members  of  her  own  family.1  And  of  the 
Sunday-school  institution  at  large  it  can  be  said 
that  "  from  an  aggregate  membership  of  a  few 
hundred  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  it  has 
come  to  include,'  within  the  evangelical  Protestant 


Trumbull,  p.  128. 


158       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

bodies  alone,  from  eight  to  ten  millions,  or  nearly 
one- fifth  of  the  entire  population  of  the  United 
States."1 

In  an  earlier  chapter  we  traced  the  idea  of  Chris- 
tian nurture  through  the  apostolic  age  to  the  earlier 
years  of  synagogue  instruction,  and  still  farther 
back  to  the  founding  of  the  Hebrew  theocracy,  and 
thence  to  the  tent  of  Abram  and  the  cradle  of  re- 
sponsible family  life. 

We  are  now  able  to  claim  for  the  Sunday-school 
(which  is  so  powerful  a  means  of  Christian  nur- 
ture), that  it  lies,  in  germ,  in  the  church  of  the 
first  days.  Clouded,  obscured,  ignored,  opposed, 
without  doubt  it  has  kept  an  existence  ever  since. 
It  is  the  glory  of  our  own  times  that  this  stream 
has  been  cleared  of  its  overgrowth  of  weeds,  that 
its  channel  has  been  well  defined,  and  that,  as  its 
waters  have  broadened  and  deepened,  and  gained 
in  volume  and  speed,  the  old  prophetic  words  have 
received  a  fresh  fulfillment :  "  And  everything 
shall  live  whither  the  river  cometh."  2  Our  pres- 
ent position,  you  will  note,  is  that  the  Sunday- 
school  is  a  part  of  the  local  church,  essential  to  its 
completeness  and  inseparable  from  its  successful 
existence.  You  can  have  the  school  without  the 
church  better  than  you  can  have  the  church  with- 
out the  school.     Old  age  is  not  so  necessary  to 

1  Trumbull,  p..  131.  a  Ezek.  47  :  9. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 59 

continued  life  as  youth,  and  we  shall  part  with  the 
grave  at  less  cost  than  with  the  cradle.  Among 
the  first  things  that  we  have  to  do,  therefore,  if 
we  are  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  to  adjust  our 
relations  to  the  Sunday-school.  To  a  considera- 
tion of  this  subject  we  will  now  turn. 

And,  first,  the  minister  must  settle  just  what  is 
his  relation  to  the  school  as  a  whole.  I  began  this 
chapter,  with  the  definition  of  the  Sunday-school 
as  the  church  and  congregation  meeting  for  the 
study  of  the  Bible ;  and  I  did  so  because  it  is  only 
too  easy  to  lose  sight  of  this  close  connection  be- 
tween the  church  and  the  school. 

In  England,  as  we  have  seen,  the  school  came 
into  existence  as  an  independent  movement.  The 
layman  rather  than  the  minister  fathered  it.  Only 
after  much  active  opposition  or  cool  patronage  did 
the  church  recognize  in  the  Sunday-school  one  of 
her  children.  In  America,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
birth  of  the  local  school — and  this  is  especially 
true  in  the  West— has,  oftener  than  not,  preceded 
the  birth  of  the  local  church.  The  mother  in  the 
one  case  has  been  the  daughter  in  the  other ;  and 
the  child  has  literally  been  father  to  the  man. 

Now  let  us  understand  that  back  of  these  acci- 
dents of  origin,  the  Sunday-school  is  one  distinct 
phase  of  the  church,  and  therefore  never  independ- 
ent of  pastoral  care  and  supervision.  Here  is  the 
local  school,  meeting  under  the  roof  of  the  local 


l6o       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

church.  Who  is  responsible  for  its  management 
and  control  ?  Who  shall  answer  for  its  condition, 
commend  it  for  its  prosperity,  or  censure  it  for  its 
ill  success  ?  I  answer  :  The  local  church  ;  and, 
as  the  representative  of  the  church,  the  minister. 

I  confess  to  a  jealousy  of  Mr.  Beecher's  state- 
ment, except  indeed  as  a  telling  bit  of  rhetoric  : 
"  I  think  that  Sunday-schools  are  the  young  peo- 
ple's church."  This  is  to  banish  the  cradle  to  an 
outhouse,  to  have  the  nursery  removed  to  a  sepa- 
rate dwelling.  It  is  to  encourage  the  error,  al- 
ready too  general,  that  the  young  people  are  to 
have  their  own  establishment  and  to  receive  their 
visitors,  have  their  own  separate  circle,  create  and 
carry  on  their  own  interests,  entirely  indifferent 
to  their  elders.  It  is  the  boarding-house  parlor 
and  not  the  family  sitting  room  that  is  set  up  as 
our  model  here.  And  I  protest  against  it.  The 
Sunday-school  is  not  the  children's  church.  The 
church  where  their  parents  worship  is  none  too 
good  for  them,  and  it  ought  to  be  none  too  formal 
or  too  old.  The  forest  trees  are  better  for  having 
the  forest  undergrowth.  Give  the  children  their 
place  in  the  family  circle  of  the  church,  as  it  sur- 
rounds the  sacred  table  or  gathers  with  psalms  and 
hymns  and  spiritual  songs  to  sing  and  make  mel- 
ody to  the  Lord.1     My  church  shall  be  the  church 

JEph.  5  :  19. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     l6l 

of  my  children  ;  and  their  Sunday-school  shall  be 
mine  as  well. 

The  responsibility  of  the  pastor  for  the  Sunday- 
school  is  not  optional.  It  is  obligatory.  Every  de- 
partment of  work  and  worship  has  been  committed 
to  the  minister,  this  among  the  rest. 

The  connection  between  church  and  school  will 
be  kept  all  the  closer  if  the  church  sustain  the 
school  financially.  A  gentleman  active  in  the 
public  school  system  of  Toronto  says  : l 

I  would  like  to  see  Sunday-schools  placed  on  the  same 
footing  financially  with  relation  to  the  church  that  public 
schools  hold  toward  the  municipalities  and  the  State.  Does 
not  the  Sunday-school  bear  even  a  closer  relation  to  the 
church  than  the  public  school  does  to  the  State?  Is  it  not 
literally  a  department,  aye,  and  an  important  department, 
of  the  church  ?  Why  then  should  it  not  have  its  place  in 
the  church  estimates  ? 

Whatever  money  is  collected  in  the  classes 
should  go  to  beneficence,  not  to  the  support  of 
the  school,  not  to  the  paying  of  a  church  debt,  not 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  school  festivals  and  pic- 
nics, but  exclusively  to  good  works.  Let  the 
school  support,  in  whole  or  in  part,  a  missionary 
abroad  or  on  the  home  field  ;  let  it  have  its  bed  in 
the  local  hospital,  its  share  in  the  fresh-air  fund, 
its  contribution  to  the  relief  of  the  famine  or  the 

1  Mr.  James  Hughes,  Inspector  of  Public  Schools,  Crafts,  "  The 
Bible,"  etc.,  p.  70. 


1 62       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

fire.  And  let  the  funds  be  allotted  under  the  di- 
rection of  a  committee  elected  by  the  whole  school, 
with  the  approval  of  the  church.  The  officers  of 
the  school — perhaps  even  the  teachers — should  be 
nominated  at  the  annual  election  held  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  voted  upon,  always  subject  to  the  ap- 
proval of  the  church. 

To  the  quickened  sense  of  pastoral  responsi- 
bility we  owe  it  that  the  local  church  is  gathering 
about  it  so  many  organizations  for  Christian  en- 
deavor, for  manual  or  mental  training,  for  asso- 
ciations of  young  men  and  young  women,  which 
fifty  years  ago  would  have  been  started  each  upon 
its  independent  basis.  It  is  little  to  the  credit  of 
the  church  that  in  the  eighteenth  century  she  suf- 
fered the  Sunday-school  to  be  begun  by  laymen, 
and  for  years  held  the  most  valuable  of  her  aux- 
iliaries at  arm's  length.  That  the  Christian  Asso- 
ciations for  young  men  and  young  women  have 
been  launched  very  much  in  the  same  way  is  little 
to  the  credit  of  the  church  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 

I  think  that  what  has  already  been  said  settles 
the  minister's  relation  to  his  Sunday-school.  He 
is  as  much  the  pastor  of  the  school  as  he  is  of 
the  fellowship.  He  is  as  much  interested  in  the 
choice  of  a  superintendent  as  he  is  in  the  choice 
of  a  deacon  or  an  elder. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL      1 63 

I  venture  to  counsel  that  from  the  first  the 
minister  be  very  watchful  over  himself  in  this 
matter.  Let  him  avoid,  by  all  means,  assuming  a 
hostile  position  toward  the  officers  of  the  school 
or  its  management.  Let  the  superintendent  be 
his  close  ally.  It  has  sometimes  been  whispered 
that  the  relations  between  the  president  and  vice- 
president  in  the  republic  are  apt  to  be  strained. 
The  officer  who  comes  next  to  you  in  rank  is  the 
one  for  whom  unconsciously  to  yourself  feelings 
of  petty  jealousy  may  creep  into  your  heart.  The 
superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school  is  like  the 
general  in  the  field,  the  pastor  is  rather  the  minis- 
ter of  war.  There  is  always  danger  of  friction. 
Let  the  minister  be  on  his  guard  against  it.  Let 
him  make  the  superintendent  his  personal  friend 
and  his  official  confidant.  Let  him  be  his  asso- 
ciate, not  in  any  sense  his  rival. 

I  trust  that  I  need  not  warn  any  minister  against 
falling  into  a  condition  of  indifference  to  the 
school.  A  farmer  might  as  well  be  indifferent  to 
his  spring  wheat.  It  is  of  the  first  importance 
that  he  keep  in  close  touch  with  every  teacher  in 
his  class  and  with  every  officer  at  his  work.  The 
secret  of  the  success  of  the  late  A.  T.  Stewart, 
the  drygoods  merchant  of  New  York,  was  said  to 
be  that  he  was  always  in  the  store  himself,  and 
that  no  single  salesman  was  long  out  of  his  sight. 
The  care  of  all  the  churches  was  that  which  daily 


164      THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

came  upon  the  apostle,1  and  the  care  of  all  the 
interests  of  the  school  should  equally  come  upon 
the  minister. 

And  yet,  at  the  same  time,  if  he  is  prudent  he 
will  not  allow  himself  to  be  meddlesome.  The 
clerical  weakness  of  omniscience  is  one  to  which 
a  minister  easily  yields.  Many  of  us  are  credited 
with  so  much  more  wisdom  than  we  really  possess 
that  it  is  not  a  very  difficult  matter  for  us  to  be- 
lieve that,  like  Lord  John  Russell  in  Sydney 
Smith's  playful  satire,  we  could  take  command  of 
the  channel  fleet,  build  St.  Peter's,  and  perform 
the  most  delicate  surgical  operation  at  an  hour's 
notice.  The  ability  of  the  minister  is  seen,  not  in 
doing  ten  men's  work,  but  in  setting  ten  men  to 
do  it  for  themselves. 

If  the  minister  makes  the  best  of  his  relation  to 
the  school  he  will  find  that  nowhere  is  there  a 
nobler  field  for  the  cultivation  of  that  rare  pastoral 
gift  which  Doctor  Chalmers  in  his  stately  rhetoric 
was  wont  to  call  "  the  prosperous  management  of 
human  nature." 

Having  said  so  much  as  to  the  minister  and 
the  school,  it  is  easy  to  pass  on  to  consider  what 
should  be  his  relation  to  its  officers. 

The  old  Greek  said,  "  He  is  the  best  shoemaker 
who,  out  of  the  leather  that  he  has  nearest  to  his 

l2  Cor.  II  :  28. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 65 

hand,  makes  the  best  pair  of  shoes."  I  think 
there  is  nothing  more  foolish  in  a  minister  than  to 
quarrel  with  his  materials.  The  despondent  tone 
is  fatal  to  success.  "  If  any  one  attempts  to  haul 
down  the  American  flag,  shoot  him  on  the  spot," 
wired  General  Dix  on  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War, 
and  the  whole  North  promptly  waked  up  to  the 
certainty  of  success.  Never  haul  down  your  flag ; 
never  even  fly  it  at  half-mast,  as  though  there 
were  a  funeral  aboard.  Make  the  officers  and 
teachers  hopeful  by  your  confident  air.  The 
"  gently  complaining  and  fatigued  spirit  "  which 
Mr.  Galton  finds  in  the  majority  of  clergymen  is 
an  insult  to  God  and  to  his  world.  The  minister 
who  adopts  it  deserves  the  same  fate — in  a  par- 
liamentary sense,  of  course — as  the  man  who 
hauls  down  the  American  flag. 

Let  us  honor  our  teachers.  Let  us  discover 
their  virtues  and  excellencies.  The  church  just 
now  is  not  crying  out  for  critics,  but  for  helpers. 
The  way  to  get  better  teachers  is  to  make  the 
very  best  of  those  we  already  have. 

I  think  what  has  to  be  said  on  this  part  of  our 
subject  may  fall  under  two  divisions.  The  min- 
ister must  advise  his  teachers  and  he  must  super- 
vise them. 

First.     He  must  advise. 

The  school,  as  a  whole,  is  only  one  of  a  vast 
number  of  similar  organizations.     Upon  no  branch 


1 66       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

of  Christian  work  is  so  much  thought  expended. 
By  all  means  let  the  minister  keep  himself  posted, 
through  the  various  excellent  Sunday-school  pub- 
lications, in  every  advance  which  the  army  of 
schools  is  making.  Without  showing  himself 
eager  to  advise  the  adoption  of  every  new  method 
that  is  being  discussed,  let  him  never  allow  his 
mind  to  fossilize.  A  school  which  is  growing 
must  devise  fresh  plans  for  further  increase.  Can 
you  canvass  the  neighborhood  ?  Can  you  make 
each  class  a  recruiting  agency  ?  Can  you  use  the 
press  to  better  advantage  ?  Is  there  an  advance 
all  along  the  line  ?  To  debate  such  matters,  let 
the  teachers  be  met  every  now  and  then,  and  let 
these  and  other  questions  be  open  for  free  dis- 
cussion. 

It  is  of  the  first  importance  that  the  minister 
advise,  without  dictating,  as  to  the  men  in  office 
in  the  school.  Let  him  find  which  way  the  current 
is  turning  and  wisely  direct  it.  If  it  is  possible 
to  have  as  his  assistant  in  the  pastorate  a  man 
qualified  to  superintend  the  school,  this  is  in  many 
respects  a  model  arrangement.  The  work  which 
has  been  done  by  our  volunteer  superintendents, 
while  busy  through  the  week  in  their  daily  avoca- 
tions, has  been  beyond  all  praise.  It  is  so  still. 
But  when  a  Sunday-school  is  well  up  in  the  hun- 
dreds, and  is  situated  in  a  neighborhood  favorable 
to  growth,  it  almost  becomes  a  necessity  that  one 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 6/ 

man,  in  addition  to  the  minister,  should  give  his 
exclusive  attention  to  it.  The  trouble  with  many 
of  our  churches  seems  to  be  that,  unlike  some 
armies  we  have  heard  of,  even  if  adequately 
manned,  they  are  insufficiently  officered. 

Let  the  minister  advise  with  his  teachers  as  to 
the  size  and  character  of  the  classes  and  as  to 
every  permanent  addition  to  the  teaching  force. 
The  band  of  regular  teachers  is  a  kind  of  cabinet ; 
and  the  more  he  takes  it  into  his  counsels  the  more 
likely  will  it  be  that  the  whole  school  will  pull 
unitedly  in  the  right  way.  All  this  will  require  to 
be  done  by  him  judiciously.  He  need  not  preside 
at  teachers'  meetings,  although  he  will  do  well  to  be 
generally  present  at  them  ;  but  the  teachers  should 
instinctively  feel  that  his  mind  is  to  be  sought 
whenever  the  interests  of  the  school  are  under  dis- 
cussion. 

More  pronounced  will  be  the  minister's  influence 
in  the  supervision  of  the  school.  The  teaching 
band  first  demands  his  attention.  In  the  opening 
clays  of  this  movement,  the  teachers  were  many  of 
them  paid.  The  present  disposition  to  engage  a 
superintendent,  well  trained  for  that  specific  work, 
and  to  pay  him  as  one  of  the  salaried  officers  of 
the  church,  is  practically  a  return  to  an  early 
method.  There  are  instances — but  they  are  rare — 
in  which  even  teachers  are  paid.  As  a  rule,  the 
whole  work  of  Sunday-school  instruction  is  volun- 


l68       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

tary.  And  the  volunteer  Sunday-school  corps, 
like  the  volunteer  choir  in  the  church,  labors  under 
this  disadvantage,  that  it  seems  ungracious  to  find 
any  fault  with  it.  When  the  illiterate  Indian 
preacher  told  a  passing  traveler  that  his  salary  was 
five  dollars  a  year  and  a  fish  pole,  the  traveler 
naturally  replied  that  this  was  "  mighty  poor  pay," 
and  the  Indian  grunted  back  that  it  was  also 
"mighty  poor  preach."  I  have  no  inclination  to 
apply  that  story  very  closely ;  but  we  cannot  shut 
our  eyes  to  the  fact  that,  take  the  country  over, 
the  teaching  in  our  Sunday-schools  is  not  what  it 
might  be.  I  should  not  say  so  much  as  this — 
knowing  how  dangerous  it  is  to  indulge  in  glitter- 
ing generalities — were  it  not  that  I  wish  to  fasten 
not  a  little  of  the  responsibility  for  the  sort  of 
teachers  to  be  found  in  the  Sunday-school  upon 
the  minister.  Far  more  care  should  be  exercised 
in  their  appointment.  And,  which  is  a  point  on 
which  I  would  lay  the  utmost  stress,  when  ap- 
pointed the  pastor  should  see  to  it  that  week  by 
week  the  lesson  for  the  next  Sunday  is  intelligently 
studied.  One  of  the  best  ways  to  freeze  out  an 
incompetent  teacher  is  to  raise  the  intellectual 
tone  of  the  whole  school.  The  scholars  will  soon 
find  out  his  incapacity,  and  in  time  even  the 
teacher  may  have  sufficient  grace  to  find  it  out 
himself. 

I  would  earnestly  counsel  that  the  minister  en- 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 69 

courage  in  his  school  not  the  multiplication  of 
classes,  so  much  as  their  efficiency.  If  ever  it 
should  fall  to  his  lot  to  build  a  school,  let  him  re- 
member that  he  can  scarcely  have  too  many  class- 
rooms. In  the  hall  where  all  meet  there  should 
be  scarcely  any  teaching  done.  We  have  been 
aiming  at  the  impossible  in  trying  to  find  in  a 
church  of,  say,  four  hundred  members,  a  teaching 
staff  of  forty.  Each  class  may  be  allowed  to  be- 
come just  as  numerous  as  its  teacher  can  make  it, 
and  the  influence  of  some  masters  of  the  art  of 
popular  Bible  exposition  with  present-day  applica- 
tion, is  to  be  seen  in  the  multitudes  that  flock  to 
their  class-rooms. 

Take  the  utmost  care  in  the  selection  of  teach- 
ers for  the  kindergarten  department.  Here  from 
the  ages  of  three  to  seven  gather  the  little  chil- 
dren, too  young  as  yet  to  be  admitted  into  the 
public  schools,  but  not  too  young  to  receive  im- 
pressions that  will  be  more  enduring  than  many 
lessons  later  learned.  The  large  church  may  well 
"  employ  a  devout  and  trained  kindergartner,  who 
shall  not  only  educate  the  child's  mind  and  body 
with  the  charming  symbolic  exercises  of  the  kin- 
dergarten, but  also  tell  the  story  of  the  life  of 
Christ,  and  teach  the  child  Christian  prayers  and 
hymns."  1     If  equal  to  doing  so,  the  kindergarten 

1  Judson,  p.  172. 


170       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

should  be  established  as  a  weekday  institution  in 
the  church,  but  often  this  will  not  be  possible. 
What  I  am  now  pleading  for  is :  The  teacher  of 
little  children  will  learn,  as  well  as  her  scholars. 
She  will  be  more  and  more  impressed  with  the 
beauty  as  well  as  with  the  mystery  of  infancy,  and 
will  sympathize  with  Jean  Paul  Richter  when  he 
says :  "  A  single  child  upon  the  earth  would  seem 
to  us  a  wonderful  angel,  come  from  some  distant 
home,  who,  unaccustomed  to  our  strange  language, 
manners,  and  air,  looks  at  us  speechless  and  in- 
quisitive.'' 

As  a  final  word  upon  this  subject  of  the  teach- 
ing force,  let  me  beg  all  to  remember  that,  in  this 
business  of  religious  instruction,  character  is  of 
the  utmost  moment.  A  frivolous  teacher,  a  teacher 
loving  the  world  more  than  the  church,  a  teacher 
mentally  equipped  but  morally  defective,  should 
be  discouraged  from  further  teaching.  I  have 
known  a  teacher  of  very  moderate  ability  who  so 
impressed  his  moral  personality  upon  his  class  that 
he  became  to  many  of  his  scholars  the  most  power- 
ful influence  for  good  through  all  their  after  lives. 
"  Character  is  capital  "  in  the  ministry,  and  scarcely 
less  is  this  true  also  in  the  case  of  the  teacher. 
To  him  I  may  venture  to  apply  the  words  of  Dr. 
Austin  Phelps  :  "  Call  him  what  you  will,  dress 
him  as  you  please,  put  him  where  you  choose,  he 
is  practically  a  minister  of  the  gospel." 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     I /I 

Of  late  years  we  have  grasped  more  firmly  than 
at  first  the  wider  mission  of  the  Sunday-school. 
We  have  made  it  central  to  a  network  of  organi- 
zations.    Without  it  the  Christian  Endeavor  So- 
ciety, the  gymnasium,  the  band  of  hope,  the  junior 
missionary  bands,  the  boys'  orchestra,  the  young 
people's  literary  society,  the  church  sociable,  and 
a  dozen  other  institutions,  could   scarcely   exist. 
The  parish  house,  in  one  form  or  another,  has  risen 
as  a  necessary  adjunct  to  the  church  building.  All 
this  is  well.     Still,  the  minister  will  need  to  be 
watchful  over  these  various  interests.      Let    him 
not  multiply  them  without  good  reason.      Let  him 
not  allow  the  thin   end   of   the  wedge  of   rivalry, 
frivolity,  or  roughness  to  get  a  chance.     The  wise 
direction  of  the  church  sociable  is  no  easy  matter. 
Let  the  minister  as  soon  as  possible  add  a  good 
stereopticon  to  his  plant.      Let  him  introduce  his 
young  people,  by  means  of  it,  to  the  wonders  of 
the  world,  to  the  great  scenes  of  history,  to  the 
masterpieces  of  art.      Let  him  not  condescend  to 
enter  the  field,  as  many  churches  have  done,  in 
competition  with    the  music   hall   or  the  variety 
theatre.     The   mission   of    the   church    is   not   to 
amuse,  it  is  to  elevate.     Yet,  keeping  the  idea  of 
the   family,  the   minister   can    shed    through    the 
school  an  atmosphere  of  good  cheer ;  and  he  can 
make  it  the  center  of  light  and  sweetness,  draw- 
ing to  it  the  young  life  of  the  community. 


172       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

A  word  as  to  another  valuable  adjunct  to  the 
school.  I  mean  the  library.  Care  should  be 
taken  to  have  an  intelligent  committee  to  select 
books  for  it.  It  will  be  well  that  the  pastor  serve 
upon  this  committee  himself.  There  are  two  ex- 
tremes to  be  avoided  in  a  Sunday-school  library, 
books  that  will  not  get  read  and  books  that  ought 
not  to  get  read.  A  glance  at  the  shelves  will  very 
likely  give  a  sample  of  the  first  of  these.  Books 
"  as  good  as  new,"  which  means  good  for  little  or 
nothing ;  black-bound,  well  printed,  with  no  weak 
pandering  to  the  fancy  by  illustrations  other  than  an 
occasional  portrait :  "  The  Memoir  of  the  Rev- 
erend Ahasuerus  Brittle,  d.  d."  ;  "  The  Early  Bud 
Blighted";  "The  Chronological  Tables  of  the 
Kings  of  Judah  and  Israel";  a  "  Treatise  on 
Predestination,"  and  "A  Life  of  Joseph  in  Words 
of  One  Syllable."  A  healthy  boy  to  read  any  of 
these  must  be  reduced  to  the  extremity  of  intel- 
lectual starvation  ;  he  must  be  where  the  besieged 
army  is  when  the  soldiers  eat  their  shoe  soles. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  books  which  are 
popular  and  eagerly  sought  for,  but  which  have  no 
true  place  in  the  Sunday-school  library.  We  have 
advanced  far  beyond  the  point  at  which  our 
fathers  drew  the  line.  We  no  longer  discuss  the 
mission  of  fiction.  We  recognize  the  good  work 
that  it  can  do.  But  the  Sunday-school  library 
may  be  the  only  avenue  open  to  many  children  for 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 73 

gaining  access  to  the  better  kinds  of  readable 
literature  and  of  fiction  among  the  rest.  Miss 
Yonge  and  George  Macdonald,  Tom  Hughes  and 
Charles  Kingsley,  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  and  Miss 
Mulock,  and  so  on  down  to  the  books  of  Mrs.  Wig- 
gins and  Ralph  Connor  and  Mrs.  Mason,  how 
they  have  enriched  the  shelves  dear  to  boys  and 
girls.  More  serious  works  will  find  readers  too. 
The  success  of  John  G.  Paton's  books  of  mission- 
ary adventure  showed  conclusively  that  a  true  man 
can  always  command  his  audience  when  he  has 
something  to  say  and  knows  how  to  say  it.  I 
need  only  urge  two  points  in  passing  :  first,  that 
we  remember  how  poor  and  worthless,  and  often 
how  demoralizing,  is  the  literature  in  the  home, 
with  its  Sunday  paper  and  dime  novel ;  and  sec- 
ondly, that  we  believe  in  the  intelligence  of  our 
scholars.  A  Sunday-school  lesson  may  be  made 
to  suggest  reading  in  Jewish  antiquities  ;  in  the 
geography,  manners,  customs,  and  present  condi- 
tion of  Bible  lands ;  in  the  history  of  the  time 
and  the  great  leaders  living  in  other  parts  of  the 
world,  which  will  reveal  the  slumbering  faculty  and 
give  to  many  a  scholar  a  healthful  intellectual  im- 
pulse of  great  value  to  his  whole  after  career. 

What  has  been  said  here  as  to  pastoral  super- 
vision has  been  little  more  than  by  way  of  sug- 
gestion. But  it  may  have  opened  up  the  in- 
creased   and  loftier   sense  of    a  pastor's  responsi- 


174       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

bility  which  comes  to  the  man  who  gratefully 
accepts  the  view  of  the  minister's  relation  to  the 
school  and  to  its  officers  which  I  am  pressing 
home  in  this  chapter. 

I  have  reserved  to  the  last  the  discussion  of 
what  is  in  many  respects  the  most  important 
branch  of  our  subject,  namely,  the  minister's  rela- 
tion to  the  teachers  of  the  school. 

Among  them  he  must  be  alike  an  intellectual  and 
a  spiritual  force.  These  are  the  points  which  re- 
main to  be  considered. 

And,  first,  he  should  be  intellectually  powerful 
in  the  teaching  corps  of  his  school. 

If  our  view  of  the  magnitude  of  Sunday-school 
work  be  correct,  then  the  minister  is  fully  war- 
ranted in  giving  a  good  share  of  his  time  and 
thought  to  it.  Should  it  seem  that  I  am  laying  a 
burden  too  heavy  upon  the  minister  in  what  I  am 
about  to  recommend,  I  can  only  answer  that  I  am 
speaking  from  personal  experience  when  I  urge 
him  to  be  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  term  a 
teacher  of  teachers.  There  is  no  branch  of  minis- 
terial labor,  I  believe,  which  will  more  richly  repay 
him  than  this. 

Occasionally,  then,  once  in  so  many  years,  it 
will  be  well  for  him  to  form  a  normal  class  and 
teach  it  himself.  A  series  of  ten  or  fifteen  studies 
under  the  guidance  of  a  simple  handbook  will  be 
sufficient.     The  months  of  the  spring  or  of   the 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 75 

fall  will  be  a  good  time  for  the  exercise.  Let  it  be 
kept  to  one  hour,  on  an  evening  free  from  all 
other  church  engagements,  and  let  the  platform 
be  furnished  with  a  blackboard  and  maps. 

The  two  ends  to  aim  at  in  a  normal  class  are 
instructing  in  the  art  of  teaching  and  instructing 
in  the  things  that  have  to  be  taught.  One  has  not 
in  this  exercise  to  expound  the  lesson  for  the  next 
Sunday,  but  rather  to  show  the  teacher  how  to 
handle  his  Bible,  how  to  master  its  contents,  and 
how  best  to  explain  and  apply  the  truths  which  it 
sets  forth. 

The  minister's  first  duty  is  to  instruct  in  the  art 
of  teaching.  So  few  Sunday-school  teachers  know 
anything  about  this  that  sometimes  there  is  no 
sight  more  pitiful  than  the  teacher  on  the  verge  of 
the  half-hour  given  to  instructing  his  class.  You 
have  a  strong  inclination  to  call  in  the  humane 
society  as  to  a  case  of  cruelty  to  animals  or  to 
send  for  the  fire  brigade  and  have  that  teacher  put 
out,  like  a  conflagration.  You  instinctively  envy 
the  promptitude  of  the  editor  who,  when  the  fresh 
hand,  nibbling  his  pen,  inquired,  "  What  shall  I 
write  about  ?  "  answered,  "  Right  about  face,"  and 
showed  him  to  the  door.  "And  yet  show  I  you 
a  more  excellent  way  "  with  the  teacher.  Let  us 
help  him  to  teach.  He  has  had  no  training.  His 
work  through  the  week,  in  store  or  office,  has  not 
done  much  for  him.     It  is  our  duty  to  take  him  in 


I76       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

hand.  "  On  the  manner  of  teaching,"  says  Doctor 
Channing,1  "  how  much  depends  !  I  fear  it  is  not 
sufficiently  studied  by  Sunday-school  instructors. 
They  meet  generally,  and  ought  regularly  to  meet, 
to  prepare  themselves  for  their  tasks.  But  their 
object  commonly  is  to  learn  what  they  are  to 
teach  rather  than  how  to  teach  it,  but  the  last 
requires  equal  attention  with  the  first,  I  had  almost 
said  more."  It  will  be  wise  if  the  pastor  occa- 
sionally turn  the  band  of  teachers  into  a  class,  or 
make  a  selection  from  the  number  for  the  purpose, 
and  so  give  an  object-lesson  in  how  best  a  lesson 
may  be  taught.  This  need  not  be  done  frequently. 
Always,  however,  he  will  need  to  keep  plainly  be- 
fore the  minds  of  the  teachers  the  fact  that  three 
things  are  essential  in  a  good  instructor  :  First,  to 
study  the  truth  of  the  lesson  as  authoritative ; 
secondly,  to  arrive  at  clear  ideas  as  to  just  what 
the  lesson  means  ;  and,  thirdly,  to  get  the  best 
possible  way  of  expressing  it.  Teaching,  let  us 
remember,  is  the  teacher's  first  duty ;  not  counsel, 
or  appeal,  or  story-telling.  The  teaching  should 
not  be  too  scholastic.  It  is  not  of  the  first  im- 
portance that  the  scholar  knows  the  distance  from 
Jerusalem  to  Jericho  or  the  specific  gravity  of  the 
Dead  Sea.  A  casual  hearer  of  Dean  Stanley's,  at 
Westminster  Abbey,  came  away  from  the  service 

1  "Works,"  p.  366. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     IJJ 

saying,  "  I  went  to  hear  about  the  way  to  heaven  ; 
I  heard  only  about  the  way  to  Palestine."  Yet  it 
is  well  to  remember  that  the  teacher  is  to  learn 
how  to  set  forth  truth  to  intelligent  creatures. 
"  Children  love  knowledge,"  l  says  Henry  Ward 
Beecher ;  "treat  them  as  rational  human  beings. 
Believe  that  the  foundation  element  in  them  is 
curiosity,  as  you  call  it ;  that  is,  the  nascent  form 
of  philosophical  feeling,  the  knowing  states  of 
mind  that  are  to  be  developed  in  them."  It  was 
when  the  nineteenth  century  was  yet  young,  and, 
shall  I  say,  foolish  ?  that  an  American  religious 
magazine  discussed  the  question,  "Can  Children 
Reason  ? "  and  now,  when  its  successor  is  yet 
young,  one  wonders  whether  those  learned  dis- 
putants were  sworn  to  eternal  celibacy,  or  whether 
the  American  children  have  developed  since  then 
a  new  faculty  under  the  impulse  of  evolution. 
Certainly  they  are  as  rational  as  their  elders,  and 
possibly  not  more  unreasonable  than  they. 

The  normal  class  will  further  be  of  service  for 
instructing  the  teachers  in  the  things  to  be  taught. 
"  Present  Bibles  !  "  is  the  direction  of  the  superin- 
tendent in  a  Chicago  Sunday-school,  just  before 
the  reading  of  the  morning  lesson ;  and  every 
teacher  and  scholar  holds  up  a  copy  of  the  Bible. 
This    is   excellent,   and    suggests    that    what    the 


1  "  Yale  Lectures,"  II.,  185. 
M 


173       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

teacher  has  to  learn  is  how  to  teach  the  Bible.  I 
am  told  that  in  the  Sunday-school  of  the  future 
the  normal  class  will  include  a  course  in  mental 
and  moral  philosophy,  pedagogics,  child-mind,  and 
kindergarten.1  Such  an  announcement  reconciles 
one  to  the  approach  of  old  age,  and  adds  another 
charm  to  the  prospect  of  the  grave.  Meanwhile, 
the  Bible  will  probably  suffice  for  people  of  ordi- 
nary intelligence  and  leisure.  It  was  the  early 
text  book  in  the  Jewish  schools  and  among  the 
first  Christians  as  they  gathered  their  children  for' 
religious  instruction.2  In  it  the  Albigenses,  the 
Lollards,  the  Wycliffites,  and  the  followers  of  John 
Huss,  trained  their  families ;  and  at  this  hour  it 
is  the  basis  of  the  admirable  teaching  given  in  their 
schools  by  the  Waldenses,  who  thereby  maintain 
the  noble  traditions  of  a  thousand  years.3 

The  course  of  instruction  which  is  given  in  the 
normal  class  should  embrace  Bible  history,  and  the 
history  of  the  Bible  ;  the  growth  of  the  canon  and 
the  order  of  the  books  ;  the  geography,  national 
history,  and  leading  characteristics  of  the  lands  of 
the  Bible;  and,  finally,  a  consideration  of  the  prin- 
cipal truths  with  which  the  book  deals.  To  this 
normal  class  study  all  may  be  invited  who  wish 

1  Mead,  "  Modern  Methods  in  Church  Work,"  p.  241. 

2  Edersheim,  "Sketches,"  etc.,  p.  125.     Trumbull,  p.   63. 

3  " Qttelques  Explications  pour  aider  P  Etude  de  la  Bible" 
Toni  Petrie,  1898. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 79 

to  come  ;  and  from  it  there  may  be  found  a  sup- 
ply of  teachers  in  an  emergency. 

The  normal  class,  as  I  have  said,  may  be  needed 
only  once  in  so  many  years.  And  if  the  pastor  is 
fortunate  in  his  association  with  brother  ministers, 
the  burden  of  it  may  easily  be  shared  with  others. 
But  it  should  not  be  allowed  to  pass  into  incapable 
hands.  Not  every  man  has  the  necessary  equip- 
ment of  studiousness,  mental  alacrity,  popular  ad- 
dress, good  temper,  and  devotion  to  his  work  to  do 
it  well. 

There  is  another  class  which,  in  my  judgment, 
the  pastor  had  better  conduct  himself.  I  mean 
the  preparation  class,  in  which  the  following  Sun- 
day's lesson  is  carefully  studied.  One  evening  in 
the  week  should  be  given  up  entirely  to  this  en- 
gagement. Writing  to  me  on  the  subject,  Dr.  A. 
F.  Schauffler,  of  New  York,  an  expert  in  conduct- 
ing such  a  class,  says  : 

Might  I  venture  to  ask  you  to  put  very  special  emphasis 
on  the  influence  which  a  pastor  ought  to  exercise  as  the 
teacher  of  his  teachers  ?  The  whole  question  of  the  leader- 
ship of  teachers'  meetings  is  one  of  very  great  importance, 
and  ministers  in  any  city  who  develop  the  power  of  leading 
a  union  teachers'  meeting,  have  a  field  opened  to  them  sec- 
ond perhaps  to  none  other  in  the  world. 

I  am  afraid  that  it  is  with  good  reason  that 
Doctor  Schauffler  adds  : 

Multitudes  of  ministers  are  graduated  from  our  seminaries 


l80       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

who  have  no  faintest  conception  of  the  field  of  usefulness 
thus  open  to  them.  They  think  so  little  of  teachers'  meet- 
ings that  they  pay  no  attention  to  the  subject. 

An  experience  of  many  years  in  conducting  this 
meeting — which  I  always  threw  open  to  all,  from 
any  school  or  congregation,  who  desired  to  attend 
it — confirms  me  in  my  hearty  approval  of  these 
words. 

Let  the  minister  take  the  lesson  exposition  him- 
self. Let  him  prepare  for  it  as  thoroughly  as  he 
would  for  a  sermon.  Short  of  making  the  attend- 
ance of  his  own  teachers  obligatory  let  him  do  all 
in  his  power  to  have  them  there  regularly.  The 
task  is  not  an  easy  one,  but  it  will  pay  a  hundred 
fold.  The  two  foes  to  teaching  among  ministers, 
from  the  beginning,  have  been  preaching  and 
ritual.  This  exercise  may  go  a  long  way  toward 
teaching  them  how  to  teach  in  their  sermon  work. 
It  may  break  up  the  parson-tone  into  which  the 
enemy  so  readily  beguiles  many  good  men.  It  will 
certainly  furnish  many  a  rich  text  and  useful  theme 
for  the  pulpit. 

The  instruction  of  the  hour  may  take  one  of  two 
forms.  It  may  be  cast  in  the  mold  of  a  running 
exposition,  with  blackboard  accompaniment,  and 
opportunity,  either  by  word  of  mouth  or  in  writing, 
for  any  who  wish  to  ask  questions  at  the  close. 
Or — which  it  is  no  doubt  preferable  when  a  capa- 
ble leader  conducts  it — the  lesson  may  be  taken 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     l8l 

up  by  means  of  questions  and  answers.  "  The 
object  is  not  merely  to  give  instruction,  but  to  put 
it  into  a  communicable  form,  so  that  in  learning 
the  hearers  may  be  prepared  to  teach.  Questions 
should  be  asked  by  the  conductor  of  the  class  as 
to  the  leading  points  of  the  lesson.  .  .  Better  still, 
questions  should  be  invited  from  the  members  of 
the  class,  that  their  own  difficulties  may  be  fairly 
stated,  and  that  the  mental  needs  of  the  scholars 
whom  they  represent  may  be  adequately  given."  l 

It  remains  that  in  this  chapter  I  glance,  much 
more  briefly  than  the  subject  deserves,  at  the 
minister's  spiritual  power  among  his  teachers. 
What  the  moral  influence — the  higher  personality 
— of  a  principal  is  in  the  public  school,  that  should 
the  religious  influence — the  highest  personality — 
of  the  minister  be  in  the  Sunday-school. 

The  great  danger  of  Sunday-schools,  as  Doctor 
Channing  said,  "is  that  they  will  fall  into  a  course 
of  mechanical  teaching,  that  they  will  give  religion 
as  a  lifeless  tradition,  and  not  as  a  quickening 
reality.  To  wake  up  the  soul  to  a  clear,  affection- 
ate perception  of  the  reality  and  truth  and  great- 
ness of  religion,  is  the  great  end  of  teaching." 

I  think  that  at  least  once  every  month  the  pas- 
tor should  meet  the  officers  and  teachers  of  the 
school  for  prayer  and  conference — and  for  nothing 

iS.  G.  Green,  "Christian  Ministry,"  etc.,  p.  187. 


1 82       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

else.  The  promotion  of  the  spiritual  life  of  this 
body  is  of  immense  importance.  Among  the  second- 
ary blessings  of  such  a  meeting  (as  well  as  of  class 
prayer  meetings,  which  he  can  also  hold  occasion- 
ally), will  be  the  development  of  spiritual  efficiency 
among  the  teachers.  They  will  learn  to  pray  in 
public  to  edification.  They  will  become  accus- 
tomed to  hear  their  own  voices  in  the  statement 
of  religious  experience. 

At  this  meeting  also,  which  need  not  be  pro- 
longed beyond  half  an  hour  at  the  most,  the  min- 
ister may  give  his  teachers  valuable  suggestions  as 
to  how  to  do  evangelistic  work  with  their  scholars. 
On  this  point  Rev.  W.  F.  Crafts  says  : 

It  would  be  an  excellent  practice  to  devote  fifteen  min- 
utes at  each  weekly  teachers'  meeting  to  the  use  of  the 
Bible  with  inquirers.  Let  the  superintendent  or  pastor 
state  some  difficulty,  such  as  is  presented  by  those  who  are 
seeking  Christ,  and  ask  from  the  teacher  the  appropriate 
passages  to  cancel  the  difficulty.1 

More  will  need  to  be  said  on  this  important 
subject  in  our  next  chapter,  when  we  propose  to 
carry  the  minister  into  the  school  itself.  What  I 
now  urge  upon  him  in  his  ministry  is,  in  a  word, 
to  regard  the  teachers  in  his  Sunday-school  as 
assistant  pastors.  So  Dr.  Edward  Judson  puts 
the  matter  : 

1  "  The  Bible  in  the  Sunday-school,"  p.  55. 


THE    MINISTER    AND    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL     1 83 

Let  the  pastor  commit  to  the  care  of  his  teachers  the 
families  represented  in  their  classes.  Let  the  teachers  call 
upon  these  families  regularly  and  report  their  condition  to 
the  pastor.  .  .  Strangers  will  be  visited,  because  families 
are  in  the  habit  of  throwing  their  children  out  as  feelers. 
The  sick  will  not  be  overlooked.  The  whole  church  will 
become  a  compact  social  organism.1 

I  wonder,  in  bringing  this  chapter  to  a  close, 
whether  it  has  seemed  to  any  one  as  though  I 
were  laying  a  good  deal  on  the  minister  ?  He  has 
so  much  to  do  already!  With  reference  to  not  a 
little  the  pastor  does  or  seems  to  do — the  "  busy 
idleness  "  which  eats  into  his  time — I  am  disposed 
to  think  that  both  he  and  the  church  may  dispense 
with  it  sooner  than  with  this  fine  discipline  of 
mind  and  soul  to  which  I  am  urging  him.  And 
let  me  say  that,  whether  these  Sunday-school  en- 
gagements— a  regular  preparation  class  for  his 
teachers  once  a  week,  an  occasional  normal  class, 
gatherings  at  stated  or  special  intervals  for  directly 
religious  conference  and  prayer — whether  these 
prove  irksome  or  refreshing  will  depend  very 
largely  on  himself.  It  is  inexpressibly  good  to  be 
working  in  the  nurseries  of  life  with  the  young 
plants  and  saplings.  They  said  that  on  into  her 
old  age,  Rosa  Bonheur,  the  greatest  animal  painter 
of  the  last  century,  carried  the  charm  of  an  eighteen- 
year-old  girl  because  she  loved  so  enthusiastically 

1  "The  Institutional  Church,"  p.  106. 


184      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

the  cattle  and  deer  of  her  forest  at  Fontainebleau. 
It  is  even  better,  more  invigorating,  and  more  in- 
spiring, to  live  among  the  children  and  to  live  for 
them.  The  minister  should  be  more  than  a  teacher 
of  teachers  ;  yes,  more,  and  better.  He  should  be 
their  atmosphere,  "  to  teach  them  the  fundamental 
truths  of  Christianity  without  neglecting  their  spir- 
itual affections  and  religious  feelings,  and  to  make 
them  love  each  other,  and  love  the  church,  and 
associate  with  the  whole  round  of  religion  the 
most  joyous  thoughts  and  feelings."  l  Under  such 
a  conviction  as  this  the  minister  will  find  his 
reward  for  every  hour  of  preparatory  study  which 
he  may  give  to  the  exposition  of  the  Sunday-school 
lesson  and  for  all  the  pains  he  may  expend  in 
advising  and  supervising  the  devoted  band  of 
teachers  that  he  will  be  sure  to  gather  about  him. 
Here,  as  in  many  other  branches  of  pastoral 
service,  finding  it  a  joyful  toil,  he  will  come  to 
prove  the  truth  of  Macbeth's  words, 

The  labor  we  delight  in  physics  pain. 
Needier,  "Yale  Lectures,"  III.,  188. 


VI 


THE    MINISTER    IN   THE    SUNDAY- 
SCHOOL 


Beginning  of  the  Sunday-school  in  England  and  America. 
Three  watchwords  :  Reformation,  information,  regenera- 
tion. There  must  be  a  power  to  reform.  The  Sunday- 
school  must  also  educate.  Bible  study.  Occasional  serv- 
ices conducted  by  the  minister.  Memorizing  Scripture. 
The  catechism.  Should  the  minister  be  a  teacher?  The 
regenerating  mission  of  the  Sunday-school.  The  minister 
should  be  well  known  by  the  scholars.  He  must  take  the 
lead  in  special  efforts  for  their  spiritual  welfare.  The  sub- 
ject of  religious  decision  to  be  made  prominent.  A  child's 
religion.  The  minister  a  unifying  influence  between  home 
and  school  and  church  and  school. 


VI 

THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

On  the  Thames  Embankment,  in  London,  the 
people  of  England  have  raised  a  statue  in  honor 
of  Robert  Raikes,  the  Gloucester  printer,  to  whom, 
more  than  to  any  other  one  man,  Sunday-schools 
owe  their  birth.  The  site  of  the  statue  is  well 
chosen,  beside  the  noble  river  which,  rising  in  the 
county  where  Raikes  was  born,  is  now  moving 
swiftly  toward  the  sea.  It  suggests  the  great 
enterprise  which  from  very  humble  beginnings 
has  swept  on  in  its  beneficent  course  until  the 
whole  world  is  the  better  for  it.  Dean  Farrar 
gives  voice  to  a  feeling  which  we  all  share  with 
him  when  he  says  that  he  never  passes  that  statue 
without  a  sense  of  pleasure. 

Raikes  tells  us,  after  seeing  the  ragged  children  rioting 
about  on  Sunday  in  the  streets  of  Gloucester  :  "  As  I  asked, 
'  Can  nothing  be  done?'  a  voice  answered,  'Try.'  I  did 
try,"  he  says,  "  and  see  what  God  hath  wrought."  There 
are  now  Sunday-school  teachers  by  tens  of  thousands  all 
over  the  world,  but,  humanly  speaking,  they  all  owe  their 
origin  to  that  one  word,  "try,"  so  softly  whispered  by  some 
voice  divine  to  the  loving  and  tender  conscience  of  Robert 
Raikes  a  hundred  years  ago.  The  echoes  of  that  word 
might  be  prolonged  by  millions  of  grateful  children   who 

187 


1 88       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

have  been  taught  for  generation  after  generation  by  loving 
teachers  in  Sunday-schools. 

How  it  all  came  about  Robert  Raikes  often  told 
his  friends  : 

The  utility  of  an  establishment  of  this  sort  was  first  sug- 
gested by  a  group  of  miserable  little  wretches  whom  I  ob- 
served one  day  in  the  street  where  many  people  employed 
in  the  pin  manufactory  reside.  I  was  expressing  my  con- 
cern to  one  at  their  forlorn  and  neglected  state,  and  was 
told  that  if  I  were  to  pass  through  that  street  upon  Sundays 
it  would  shock  me  indeed  to  see  the  crowds  of  children  who 
were  spending  that  sacred  day  in  noise  and  riot,  to  the 
extreme  annoyance  of  all  decent  people.  I  immediately 
determined  to  make  some  little  effort  to  remedy  the  evil.1 

Reformation,  then,  was  the  first  thought  in  the 
Sunday-school  system.  But  another  followed,  of 
necessity.  In  the  same  letter  from  which  I  have 
been  quoting  Raikes  sounds  a  still  higher  note.  In 
these  schools  "children  maybe  received,"  he  says, 
"upon  the  Sunday,  and  then  engaged  in  learning 
to  read  and  to  repeat  their  catechism  or  anything 
else  that  may  be  deemed  proper  to  open  their 
minds  to  a  knowledge  of  their  duty  to  God,  to 
their  neighbors,  and  themselves."  Reformation 
was  to  go  hand  in  hand  with  information.  These, 
however,  were  not  enough.  Within  a  year  or  two 
John  Wesley,  with  characteristic  devotion  to  the 
true  purpose  of  being,  writes  :  "  I  find  these  schools 

1  Gregory's  "  Raikes,"  p.  60. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       1 89 

springing  up  wherever  I  go.  Perhaps  God  may 
have  a  deeper  end  therein  than  men  are  aware  of. 
Who  knows  but  some  of  these  schools  may  become 
nurseries  of  Christians  ? "  To  his  mind  it  is 
evident  that  reformation  and  information  were 
incomplete  unless  they  led  to  transformation. 

In  America  the  Sunday-school  system,  while  it 
did  not  spring  directly  from  the  movement  in  the 
mother  country,  was  so  radical  in  its  action  that, 
although  it  may  have  grown  out  of  the  catechetical 
practice  in  the  churches,  it  really  amounted  to  a 
revolution.1  No  doubt  the  shocking  condition  of 
morals  in  England  in  the  last  century — when  even 
in  a  cathedral  city  such  as  Gloucester,  abounding 
in  clergymen,  "  the  streets  swarmed  with  rogues 
and  vagabonds,  who  were  flogged  through  the  city 
weekly  by  scores,"  and  where  George  Whitefield 
was  known  only  as  a  dirty  little  rascal  who  robbed 
his  mother's  till  and  tried  to  quiet  his  conscience 
by  giving  part  of  the  plunder  to  the  poor, — made 
the  movement  more  reformatory  in  its  character 
than  in  the  happier  districts  of  New  England ; 
but  there  was  need  of  moral  dynamite  every- 
where. And  this  the  Sunday-school  movement 
gave.  The  minister,  as  he  comes  to  his  Sunday- 
school  to  take  his  share  in  this  important  branch 
of  Christian  work,  will  do  well  to  keep  in  mind  the 

1  "Life  of  Dr.  Jeter,"  p.  26. 


190       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

three  impelling  forces — reformation,  information, 
transformation — v/ith  which  the  young  enterprise 
was  started  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago. 

First,  then,  let  him  remember  that  there  must 
be  in  the  Sunday-school  a  power  to  reform,  a  moral 
influence.  This  lay  at  the  root  of  the  Jewish 
school  system.  "  The  grand  object  of  the  teacher 
was  moral  as  well  as  intellectual  training.  To 
keep  children  from  all  intercourse  with  the  vicious  ; 
to  suppress  all  feelings  of  bitterness,  even  though 
wrong  had  been  done  to  one's  parents  ;  to  punish 
all  wrong-doing  ;  rather  to  show  sin  in  its  repulsive- 
ness  than  to  predict  what  punishment  would  fol- 
low, either  in  this  or  the  next  world,  so  as  not  to 
'  discourage  '  the  child — such  are  some  of  the  rules 
laid  down  "  in  the  Talmud.1 

The  minister  may  well  use  the  school  for  incul- 
cating by  example  some  of  the  minor  moralities 
— courtesy,  for  instance,  and  considerateness — to 
which  slight  attention  is  paid  in  many  homes. 
Much  will  depend  upon  him  in  these  matters. 
The  aim  of  the  parochial  system  was  to  put  a  gen- 
tleman in  every  parish,  and,  whether  it  succeeded 
or  not,  it  was  a  true  and  noble  aim.  On  the  part 
of  the  minister,  grace  of  manner,  politeness,  and 
instinctive  respect  for  the  teacher — keeping  him 
from  intruding  and  from  interrupting  him  in  his 

1Edersheim,  "Sketches,"  etc.,  p.  135. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       191 

work,  a  careful  regard  for  the  office  of  superin- 
tendent, and  a  public  recognition  on  every  occasion 
of  him  who  fills  the  office — will  impress  the  scholars 
with  the  beauty  of  courtesy. 

The  Sunday-school  never  stops  with  itself.  The 
home  must  feel  its  power.  Some  of  the  first 
schools  were  held  in  private  houses.1  It  was  in  a 
weaver's  cottage  in  Lancashire  that  a  school  was 
gathered  to  the  clanging  of  an  old  brass  pestle  and 
mortar  by  a  poor  bobbin  winder  some  years  before 
Raikes  began  his  work.  And  nowhere,  I  suppose, 
more  than  in  this  same  English  county  has  the 
Sunday-school  reached  the  home  with  such  prac- 
tical organizations  as  beneficiary  and  sick  and 
burial  clubs.2 

Of  the  late  R.  W.  Dale,  of  Birmingham,  his 
biographer  says  that  "  he  never  forgot  that  of 
most  children  it  may  be  said  that  if  they  have  no 
church  in  the  home  they  have  no  home  in  the 
church."  But,  judged  by  this  criterion,  how 
many  homes  are  no  homes.  The  school  alone,  of 
all  the  agencies  of  the  church,  is  likely  to  reach 
them  with  its  saving  message.  From  it,  there- 
fore, the  minister  will  do  well  to  launch  any  move- 
ment— such  as  the  "  Pleasant  Sunday  Afternoons" 
— for  the  bettering  and  brightening  of  the  common 
lot  of  the  men  and  women  all  about  him.     From 

1  Gregory,  p.  47. 
2  Mead,  "Modern  Methods,"  etc.,  Chap.  XXXVII. 


192       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

the  school  he  can  carry  the  news  of  every  such 
organization  to  the  homes  of  the  scholars.  I  do 
not  mean  that  the  church  is  to  be  known  in  the 
neighborhood  as  a  place  of  entertainment.  Such 
it  is  not.  With  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon  I  say :  "  The 
rage  for  church  amusement  which  the  last  few 
years  have  witnessed  has  filled  me  with  sincere 
alarm.  No  reader  of  history  can  be  ignorant  of 
the  fact  that  it  was  precisely  this  process  by  which 
the  apostasy  and  corruption  of  Christianity  were 
originally  accomplished."  And,  with  him,  I  be- 
lieve that  the  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor  "has 
turned  the  energy  and  activity  of  our  young  peo- 
ple into  a  better  channel."  It  is  well  that  the 
school  should  be  known  in  the  home  by  the  various 
ministries  of  that  society,  but  it  is  not  well — it  is 
shameful  and  humiliating — that  it  should  be  known 
by  degrading  the  scholars  into  touts  and  ticket 
agents  for  what  has  been  called,  not  too  severely, 
"  the  devil's  mission  of  amusement." 

Widening  our  circle,  we  remark  that  the  minis- 
ter may,  through  the  instruction  given  to  the 
scholars  and  the  example  set  them,  do  something 
to  promote  civic  purity.  It  would  be  interesting, 
were  there  space  to  do  so,  to  trace  this  in  some 
concrete  example, — in  Birmingham,  England,  for 
instance,  which  has  been  called  the  best  governed 
city  in  the  world,  and  which  has  become  so  in  the 
last  forty  years,  mainly  because  a  body  of  young 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL       1 93 

men,  ministers  and  Sunday-school  teachers  chiefly, 
gave  themselves  with  self-sacrificing  ardor  to  the 
good  of  the  community. 

Nor  need  we  stay  here.  The  Sunday-school 
has  exerted  a  national  influence.  The  work  of 
Robert  Raikes  was  scarcely  six  years  old  when 
the  Gloucestershire  magistrates  passed  a  unani- 
mous vote  to  the  effect  that  "  the  benefit  of 
Sunday-schools  to  the  morals  of  the  rising  genera- 
tion is  too  evident  not  to  merit  the  recognition  of 
this  bench  and  the  thanks  of  the  community  to 
the  gentlemen  instrumental  in  promoting  them."  Y 
Indeed,  it  was  the  dreadful  condition  of  the  prisons, 
making  him  write  "  could  unhappy  wretches  see 
the  misery  that  awaits  them  in  a  crowded  gaol 
they  would  surely  relinquish  the  gratifications  that 
reduce  them  to  such  a  state  of  wretchedness,"  and 
"  the  thought  of  the  convict  ships  carrying  out  about 
one  thousand  miserable  creatures  who  might  have 
lived,  perhaps  happily,  in  this  country  had  they 
been  early  taught  good  principles,"  that  led  Raikes 
to  begin  his  schools.  And,  even  after  he  had 
gathered  his  scholars  in  classes  and  brought  them 
into  some  kind  of  order,  how  much  of  the  criminal 
element  remained  we  may  judge  from  the  words 
of  an  eye-witness  :  "  There  were  always  bad  'uns 
coming  in.     I  know  the  parents  of  one  or  two  of 


1  Gregory,  p. 

N 


194       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

them  used  to  walk  them  to  school  with  fourteen- 
pound  weights  tied  to  their  legs  to  keep  them 
from  running  away.  Other  boys  would  come 
with  wood  tied  to  their  ankles."  So  bad  were 
they  that  Raikes,  at  times,  had  to  take  them  home 
to  their  parents  to  be  "walloped,"  and  he  used  to 
stop  and  see  it  done.  Sometimes  the  boys  would 
be  "  belted  "  or  strapped  all  the  way  to  school.  No 
one  would  take  any  notice  of  punishment  being 
inflicted  in  Sunday-schools  when  they  were  first 
started.  The  only  sense  that  would  appeal  to  the 
boys  who  were  first  got  together  was  the  sense  of 
pain.  Corporal  punishment  only  very  slowly  died 
out  of  the  discipline  of  the  Sunday-schools  in 
Great  Britain.  Possibly  it  is  not  wholly  dead  yet. 
In  New  England  the  catechism  (which  was  the 
Sunday-school  in  germ)  was  certainly  a  powerful 
agent  in  repressing  evil  and  promoting  good  citi- 
zenship, and  one  of  the  eulogists  of  that  old- 
fashioned  instrument  for  the  welfare  of  the  parish, 
challenges  his  audience  with  the  questions,  "  Did 
you  ever  know  any  man  who  was  brought  up  on 
the  catechism  who  did  not  vote  on  rainy  days,  and 
vote  right  too  ?  No.  Did  you  ever  know  a  de- 
faulter, or  a  communist,  or  a  profane  swearer,  or  a 
bulldozer,  who  was  brought  up  on  the  catechism  ? 
No."  l     This  is,  no  doubt,  the  testimony  of  a  par- 

1  Dorus  Clarke,  "Saying  the  Catechism,"  pp.  38,  39. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       1 95 

tial  witness ;  but  without  any  question  the  effect 
of  the  training  in  the  Sunday-school  on  the  home, 
the  neighborhood,  and  the  whole  community  was 
very  marked.  "The  mere  fact,"  it  has  been  said, 
"that  children  attend  the  Sunday-school  brings 
the  subject  of  religion,  week  after  week,  before 
the  minds  of  the  parents,  and  is  a  standing  ad- 
monition that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  should  be  the 
law  of  the  household."  ]  After  twenty-five  years' 
experience  of  Sunday-schools  in  Ireland,  the  par- 
liamentary report  testified  to  their  influence  on 
the  moral  character  and  in  promoting  deference  to 
the  laws  ;  while  in  Wales,  the  Royal  Education 
Commission,  by  the  mouth  of  one  of  its  officials, 
declared  that  "  in  little  more  than  half  a  century 
the  Sunday-school  has  been  the  main  agency  in 
effecting  that  change  in  the  moral  and  social  popu- 
lation of  the  country,  to  which  a  parallel  can 
scarcely  be  found  in  history."  2 

The  minister  has  yet  to  understand  his  office 
who  does  not  view  himself  as  an  influence  on  the 
community.  He  is  called  upon  to  deal  with  men 
and  women  in  their  social,  their  civic,  and  their 
national  relations.  It  is  the  homes  of  the  coming 
years  that  are  about  him  in  the  school,  it  is  the 
citizens  who  soon  will  cast  their  ballots,  it  is  the 
factors  for  weal   or  woe  of  the  century,  at   whose 

1  Trumbull,  pp.  162,  163.  %  Ibid.,  p.  165. 


I96       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

doors  we  stand.  "  The  twig  will  become  a  tree," 
as  the  son  of  William  the  Silent  said,  called  so 
early  by  the  assassin's  bullet  to  take  his  father's 
place.  That  is  what  you  need  to  remember.  "  He 
who  helps  a  child,"  to  quote  the  words  of  Phillips 
Brooks,  "helps  humanity  with  a  distinctiveness, 
with  an  immediateness,  which  no  other  help  given 
to  human  creatures  in  any  other  stage  of  their 
human  life  can  possibly  give  again.  The  thing 
that  made  the  divine  Master  indignant  as  he  stood 
there  in  Jerusalem  was  that  he  dreamed  of  seeing 
before  him  a  man  who  had  harmed  some  of  these 
little  ones,  and  he  said  of  any  such  ruffian,  '  It 
were  better  for  him  that  he  never  had  been  born.' 
It  is  such  an  awful  thing  to  hurt  a  child's  life  ;  to 
aid  a  child's  life  is  beautiful."  l 

How  much  the  Sunday-school  has  changed  in 
its  character  will  be  evident  if  I  have  been  fol- 
lowed thus  far.  The  well-to-do  and  the  reputable 
have  taken  possession  of  the  organization  which 
was  intended  at  first  only  for  the  poor  and  unfor- 
tunate. As  has  so  often  happened  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  Pharaoh's  dream  has  been  reversed, 
and  the  seven  rank  and  full  ears  have  devoured 
the  seven  thin  ears,  blasted  with  the  East  wind. 

Robert  Raikes  was  an  old  man,  when  in  his  re- 
tirement there  came  to  visit  him  a  young  Quaker 

1  Phillips  Brooks,  "  Essays  and  Addresses,"  pp.  506,  507. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL       1 97 

named  Joseph  Lancaster,  who  was  then  absorbed 
in  the  plan,  which  afterward  made  his  name  famous 
in  the  annals  of  popular  education,  for  giving 
week-day  instruction  to  the  children  of  the  poor. 
Leaning  on  the  arm  of  his  visitor,  Raikes  led  him 
through  the  thoroughfares  of  Gloucester  to  the 
spot  in  a  back  street  where  the  first  school  was 
held.  "  Pause  here,"  said  the  old  man.  Uncov- 
ering his  head  and  closing  his  eyes,  he  stood  for  a 
moment  in  silent  prayer.  Then  turning  toward 
his  friend,  while  the  tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks, 
he  said,  "This  is  the  spot  on  which  I  stood  when 
I  saw  the  destitution  of  the  children  and  the 
desecration  of  the  Sabbath  by  the  inhabitants  of 
the  city."  And  then  he  added,  referring  to  the 
incident  mentioned  in  the  first  sentences  of  this 
chapter,  "As  I  asked,  'Can  nothing  be  done?'  a 
voice  answered,  'Try.'  I  did  try,  and  see  what 
God  has  wrought.  I  can  never  pass  by  this  spot, 
where  the  word  '  try  '  came  so  powerfully  into  my 
mind,  without  lifting  up  my  hands  and  heart 
to  heaven  in  gratitude  to  God  for  having  put 
such  a  thought  into  my  heart."  The  meeting  on 
that  memorable  spot  of  the  two  men  who  did  so 
much,  the  one  for  sacred  and  the  other  for  secular 
schools,  seems  to  me  a  subject  fit  for  a  painter. 
Already  the  time  had  come  when  the  Sunday- 
school  could  hope  to  keep  itself  to  its  own  true 
vocation.     At   first,  perforce,  a  great  part  of  its 


I98       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

work  had  been  to  teach  reading  and  writing.  I 
myself  was  once  granted  the  use  of  a  vacant  ware- 
house for  a  Sunday-school  in  a  poor  and  crowded 
district  of  an  English  city  on  condition  that  we 
taught  not  reading  and  writing  only,  but  arithme- 
tic as  well.  All  this  is  now  changed  ;  the  public 
school  takes  its  moral  and  religious  character  from 
the  Sunday-school,  and  the  minister  must  remem- 
ber in  his  dealings  with  his  scholars  of  how  much 
moment  this  is.  Aim,  by  all  means,  to  make  the 
Sunday-school  not  the  young  people's  church,  but 
the  place  where  the  whole  congregation  meets  to 
study  the  Bible.  "  The  righteous,"  said  the  rab- 
bis, "  go  from  the  synagogues  to  the  school ;  from 
the  place  of  prayer  to  the  place  of  study."  l  En- 
tering the  synagogue  Bible-school  at  six  years  old, 
"  the  Jewish  scholar  never  came  to  an  age  for 
graduation  from  that  school."  The  way  to  keep 
the  young  people  in  the  school  is  for  the  older 
people  to  remain  in  it ;  and  first  of  all,  for  the 
minister  to  do  so. 

We  may  begin,  therefore,  by  laying  it  down  as 
the  duty  of  the  minister  to  be  found  in  the  Sun- 
day-school every  Sunday.  Occasionally,  but  not  as 
a  matter  of  course,  let  him  offer  prayer  at  the  open- 
ing or  closing  of  the  exercises.  Let  him  be  ready 
to  review  the  last  Sunday's  lesson   before  the  les- 

1  Trumbull,  p.  16. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       1 99 

son  for  the  day  is  taken  up.  Or,  he  may  review, 
briefly  and  with  spirit,  the  lesson  just  taught,  be- 
fore the  school  is  dismissed.  Let  him  not,  in 
either  case,  spend  more  than  a  few  minutes  over 
his  review.  He  should  have  a  blackboard  and 
learn,  for  it  is  an  art,  to  use  it  deftly  and  to  good 
purpose. 

Anyhow,  let  the  minister  be  there.  He  needs 
to  learn  that  it  is  really  not  necessary  in  order  to 
exert  an  influence  that  he  be  always  talking.  He 
can  talk  too  much  and  be  heard  too  often.  His 
silence  may  do  as  much  good  as  his  speech,  possi- 
bly sometimes  even  more.  To  be  seen  there, 
ready  for  service  or  suggestion,  is  what  must,  first 
of  all,  be  expected  of  him. 

I  think  much  may  be  said  in  favor  of  a  brief 
exercise,  say  of  five  minutes,  in  which  the  pastor 
drills  the  school  in  memorizing  Scripture.  Let 
none  misunderstand  me.  The  parrot  method  is, 
of  course,  to  be  condemned.  In  its  feeblest  and 
most  tyrannical  days,  the  "  Catechism  of  the  West- 
minster Assembly"  was  taught  thus,  but  so  it  was 
never  intended  to  be  taught.  Learning  by  rote  is 
not  really  learning  at  all.  The  understanding  is 
not  called  into  play.  But  with  this  word  of  warn- 
ing, I  heartily  commend  the  practice  of  learning 
the  very  words  of  Scripture.  There  is  certainly 
known  to  me  one  compendium  of  "  Treasure  Texts  " 
for  youthful  memories  which  might  be  used  with 


200      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

advantage   occasionally  in   our   schools,  and  very 
likely  there  are  more.1 

Shall  we  venture  a  step  farther  and  remind  our 
readers  how  powerful  an  agent  in  religious  education 
the  catechism  has  been  ?  "  A  boy,"  said  Lord  Bacon, 
"can  preach,  but  a  man  only  can  catechise."  Per- 
haps the  prevalence  of  preaching  and  the  paucity 
of  catechetical  instruction  is,  in  part  at  least,  ex- 
plained here.  Among  the  Jews,  and  in  the  early 
church,  one  suspects  that  Lord  Bacon's  words 
would  have  called  forth  hearty  assent.  You  re- 
member that  our  Lord's  public  life2  may  almost 
be  said  to  lie  between  the  scene  in  the  temple, 
when  he  is  found  among  the  doctors  hearing  them 
and  asking  them  questions,  and  that  other  scene, 
not  long  before  the  end,  when,  put  to  shame  and 
silence  by  his  words,  the  lawyers  "durst  not  from 
that  day  forth  ask  him  any  more  questions."3 
The  buildings  of  the  early  church  were  constructed 
in  part  with  a  special  view  to  the  catechumen,4 
and  the  frequent  questions  in  the  sermons  of  the 
greatest  of  the  preachers  of  the  first  days,  notably 
Chrysostom,  were  not  alone  for  rhetorical  effect.5 
They  were,  in  part  certainly,  survivals  of  the  golden 
time  when  the  pew  not  only  might,  but  must  an- 
swer back  to  the  pulpit.     The  catechisms  of  the 

1  "Treasure  Texts."     Boston  :  The  Pilgrim  Press. 

2  Luke  2  :  46.  3  Matt.  22  :  46. 

4  Trumbull,  p.  51.  5  Ibid.,  p.  60. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       201 

great  churches  of  Christendom  are  standing  proofs 
of  the  importance  which,  in  past  centuries,  has  been 
attached  to  this  exercise,  and  among  the  rules 
printed  by  Raikes  for  use  in  some  of  the  earliest 
of  his  Sunday-schools,  I  find  this  one,  that  the 
scholars  "shall  assemble  at  church  on  the  second 
evening  of  every  month,  at  six  o'clock,  to  be  ex- 
amined and  to  hear  a  plain  exposition  of  the  cate- 
chism, which  the  minister  will  endeavor  to  give 
them."1  How  powerfully  the  catechism  which 
formed  part  of  the  "New  England  Primer"  influ- 
enced the  first  settlers  in  the  eastern  part  of 
America,  I  need  only  remind  you.  It  was  taught 
in  the  day-schools  and  as  regularly  recited  there, 
down  to  times  comparatively  modern,  "  as  Web- 
ster's Spelling  Book  or  Murray's  English  Gram- 
mar."2 On  the  Sunday  afternoons  appointed  for 
saying  the  catechism,  the  meeting-house  would  be 
crowded  with  anxious  parents  and  sympathizing 
friends,  while  the  minister,  standing  in  the  pulpit, 
put  out  the  questions  to  the  children  in  order,  and 
each  one,  when  the  question  came  to  him,  was 
expected  to  wheel  out  of  the  line  of  scholars  into 
the  broad  aisle  and  face  the  minister  and  make  his 
very  best  obeisance  and  answer  the  question  put 
to  him  without  the  slightest  mistake.3 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  the  use  of  the  catechism 

1  Gregory,  p.  151.  2  Dorus  Clarke,  p.  18.  3  Ibid.,  p.  17. 


202       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

would  be  first  abused  and  would  then  decline,  how 
it  would  become  formal  and  meaningless  when  the 
fire  was  dying  out  at  the  heart  of  the  church ;  but 
I  think  that  it  would  be  hard  to  show  any  substi- 
tute for  it  which  is  worthy  of  taking  its  place. 
The  Assembly's  catechism  still  seems  to  me  to 
remain  peerless,  and  after  careful  examination  of 
many  of  its  forerunners  and  successors,  down  to 
the  "  Evangelical  Free  Church  Catechism,"  pub- 
lished by  a  kind  of  ecclesiastical  syndicate  in  Great 
Britain,  there  is  no  other  compendium  of  Bible 
truth  which  appears  to  be  at  all  comparable  with 
it.  Admitting,  as  it  does,  of  ready  modification  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  age,  I  believe  that  if  a 
catechism  is  to  be  used  in  our  schools  at  all,  it 
will  be  on  the  lines  of  this  historic  manual. 

Were  a  catechism  introduced,  it  would  be  the 
minister  who  would  have  to  teach  it.  To  do  so 
would  form  part  of  his  work  in  the  Sunday-school. 
A  few  minutes  each  Sunday,  or  a  monthly  exercise 
of  perhaps  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  would  suffice. 
Everything  would  depend  on  the  way  in  which  he 
carried  the  exercise  through.  If  well  done,  he  and 
the  people  committed  to  his  care  might  come  to 
agree  with  John  Owen,  the  Puritan,  when  he  says : 
"  More  knowledge  is  ordinarily  diffused,  especially 
among  the  young  and  ignorant,  by  one  hour's 
catechetical  exercise  than  by  many  hours'  con- 
tinual discourse." 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       203 

Before  leaving  this  part  of  our  subject,  I  may 
be  allowed  to  suggest  that  at  all  events  the  min- 
ister will  do  well  now  and  then  to  offer  prizes  to 
the  scholars  who  pass  the  best  examinations,  oral 
or  written,  in  the  lessons  of  a  given  period.  This 
plan  has  been  successfully  adopted  in  England 
and  much  can  be  said  in  its  favor.  Certainly  it  is 
to  be  regretted  that  our  elaborate  system  of  Sun- 
day-school lessons  does  not  oftener  cumulate  at 
some  visible  point  and  show  some  appreciable 
achievement. 

We  now  come  to  a  question  of  no  little  moment 
to  the  minister  in  the  Sunday-school.  Should  he 
himself  teach  ?  The  ancient  teaching,  we  must 
remember,  was  all  based  on  the  catechism  and  it 
was  conducted  by  the  priest  or  pastor.  Now  that 
we  have  wisely  distributed  the  teaching  office  and 
enlarged  it  so  materially,  is  the  minister  to  have 
no  part  in  it  ?  Luther,  in  common  with  others  of 
the  Reformers,  was  emphatic  in  his  insistence  on 
the  duty  of  the  preacher  to  be  a  teacher  also.  He 
held  that  a  bishop  ought  to  give  proof  before  being 
a  bishop  that  he  had  aptness  to  teach.  Many  of 
the  popes  have  served  this  same  apprenticeship, 
and  the  present  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was 
famous  in  his  earlier  years  as  the  greatest  suc- 
cessor to  Thomas  Arnold  in  the  head-mastership 
of  Rugby  School. 

Yet  I  should   be  inclined  to   say  that,  with  one 


204       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

exception,  to  which  I  am  about  to  allude,  the  min- 
ister had  better  not  have  a  class  in  the  Sunday- 
school.  His  exposition  of  the  lesson  in  the  previ- 
ous week  will  have  fitted  him  to  teach,  and  it  will 
be  well  for  him  to  be  ready  to  fill  the  vacant  chair 
of  some  absent  teacher, — to  carry,  in  fact,  a  roving 
commission,  which  will  allow  him  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  every  part  of  his  school. 

The  exception,  the  only  exception,  that  I  make 
to  this,  is  in  favor  of  a  Bible  class  for  young  men. 
With  the  utmost  advantage  he  may  gather  about 
him,  if  he  be  equal  to  doing  so,  those  to  whom 
the  poet's  words  apply — "  Shades  of  the  prison- 
house  begin  to  close  upon  the  growing  boy."  The 
most  serious  trouble  with  our  Sunday-school  sys- 
tem is  that  it  does  not  prove  more  successful  in 
retaining  the  older  scholars,  and  especially  the 
lads  who  openly  boast  that  they  are  no  longer 
boys  and  yet  secretly  fear  that  they  are  not  quite 
men.  The  leakage  between  the  school  and  the 
church  is  heaviest  here.  From  eighteen  to  twenty- 
eight,  is,  as  Doctor  Cuyler  says,  the  golden  age  of 
opportunity.  It  is  commonly  the  decisive  decade 
also.  "  If  a  young  man  reaches  thirty  without 
giving  his  heart  to' Christ,  he  has  missed  his  best 
time,  and  from  that  date  onward  the  chances  of 
conversion  (humanly  speaking),  diminish  in  a  geo- 
metric ratio."  Then,  very  often  comes  the  time 
when  the  growing  boy,  begins  to  lose  his  interest 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       205 

in  the  school.  If  he  is  taught  in  the  main  room 
this  is  especially  the  case.  And  unless  something  is 
done,  within  a  few  months  he  may  be  drifting 
away.  It  is  of  him  that  Mr.  Spurgeon  is  thinking 
when  he  says,  "  A  link  must  be  found  between 
the  senior  scholars  and  the  public  means  of  grace, 
or  else  Sunday-school  work  will  be  pouring  water 
into  a  leaking  bucket."  On  the  other  hand,  the 
boys  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  if  retained,  interested 
and  brought  to  religious  decision,  will  be  the  very 
life-blood  of  the  church  twenty  years  hence.  I 
shall  be  forgiven  if  I  say  that  I  am  now  speaking 
from  personal  experience.  A  young  men's  Bible 
class  which  I  began  and  maintained  in  one  of  our 
Eastern  cities,  teaching  it  in  a  separate  room  im- 
mediately after  the  morning  service,  was  more 
productive  of  good  than  any  other  one  feature  in 
my  ministry  there.  It  grew  in  numbers  and  was 
organized  as  a  society,  and  when  last  I  heard  of  it 
it  was  flourishing  still.  Numbers  of  its  members 
were  added  to  the  church.  It  became  a  power  in 
the  community,  and  business  men  in  search  of 
young  men  to  fill  places  in  their  offices  or  stores 
often  turned  to  that  class  first  of  all.  "  It  would 
be  impossible,"  the  minister  wrote  a  few  years 
since,  "  even  to  name  all  the  advantages  which 
have  come  to  our  own  church,  to  other  churches, 
and  to  the  young  men  of  the  city,  through  the 
agency  of  the  society." 


206       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

The  minister  should  have  such  a  class  in  his 
school.  Rather  than  let  it  fall  into  incompetent 
hands,  he  should  teach  it  himself.  The  actual 
teaching  need  be  all  that  he  does.  The  president 
and  other  officers  of  the  class  should  be  chosen  by 
popular  vote.  But  as  a  teacher  he  must  bring  him- 
self face  to  face  with  his  young  men.  He  must  be 
considerate,  sympathetic,  and  perfectly  honest.  He 
will  find  that  his  scholars  often  break  upon  him 
"  with  very  tough  questions,  questions  that  wear  a 
considerable  looking  toward  infidelity."  x  He  may 
well  teach  his  lips  to  say,  "  I  do  not  know."  Any 
assumption  of  the  dogmatist  will  close  the  mouth 
of  some  young  questioner,  but  it  will  not  convince 
his  mind.  It  will  only  alienate  his  heart.  Yet  the 
pastor  will  do  well  to  remember  the  golden  words 
which  Dr.  Marcus  Dods  once  spoke  to  just  such 
a  class  which  he  taught  after  his  Sunday  afternoon 
service  in  Glasgow.  "  The  Bible  was  given  more 
for  our  edification  than  for  polemical  purposes." 

So  one  aim  should  be  never  lost  sight  of.  I 
mean  the  religious  decision  of  each  young  man  in 
the  class.  Having  won  their  confidence,  the  min- 
ister may  readily  find  an  occasion  to  talk  with 
those  who  are  not  already  Christians,  and  discuss 
with  them  their  difficulties,  explain  the  matters 
which  may  perplex  them,  and  so  win  them  to  the 

1  Bushnell,  p.   378. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       207 

Saviour.  He  may  (if  he  is  wise  he  will)  get  the 
Christian  young  men  in  his  class  to  help  him  in 
this  important  matter.  The  remarkable  success 
of  the  "Young  Men's  Baraca  Union  of  America," 
which  sprang  into  existence  from  the  conversation 
of  four  members  of  a  Bible  class  for  young  men 
with  their  teacher  when  he  was  concerned  at  the 
few  conversions  for  the  large  amount  of  work  ex- 
pended, is  proof  how  much  can  be  done  here. 
That  teacher  writes  to  me  : l  "  The  Baraca  now 
numbers  three  hundred  classes  in  thirty-four 
States  and  Canada,  and  is  growing  rapidly.  One 
hundred  and  fifteen  of  my  own  class  have  joined 
my  church."  I  would  advise  every  student  for 
the  Christian  ministry  to  obtain  the  literature  in 
reference  to  this  very  interesting  organization,  and 
even  at  the  risk  of  adding  another  society  to  his 
list,  to  associate  himself  with  it. 

So  much  then  for  the  work  which  the  minister 
may  do  in  his  school  as  a  channel  for  information. 
Let  him  not  fear  lest  this  interest  in  the  young 
people  of  his  charge  should  prove  too  heavy  a 
tax.  On  the  contrary,  it  will  keep  him  vigorous 
and  young  himself.  He  will  find  his  enthusiasm 
a  tonic.  The  preparation  class  of  the  week  will 
furnish  him  the  material  for  the  Bible  class  on 
the  Sunday.     The  fellowship  of  young  and  ardent 

1  M.  A.  Hudson,  200  Comstock  Ave.,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  June, 
1899.     Comp.  "The  Standard,"  June  1889,  p.  II. 


208       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

hearts  will  do  him  good  ;  the  fresh  angles,  some- 
time very  acute  and  sometimes  very  obtuse,  at 
which  truth  is  seen  will  cause  him  to  understand 
how  much,  and  how  little  too,  there  often  is  to  the 
human  mind;  and  the  growth  of  his  church  in  the 
stalwart  and  energetic  blood  of  the  coming  genera- 
tion will  round  out  to  its  completion  the  great 
aspiration  of  the  psalmist :  "  Both  young  men  and 
maidens,  old  men  and  children,  let  them  praise  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  l 

At  this  point  I  wish  to  recall  the  fine  prophetic 
phrase  of  John  Wesley  when  he  beheld  in  the 
Sunday-school  of  the  coming  era  "  nurseries  for 
Christians."  No  prophecy  has  ever  received  richer 
fulfillment.  Of  no  other  enterprise  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  has  it  been  more  true  to  say,  "  This 
and  that  man  was  born  in  her  ;  and  the  Highest 
himself  shall  establish  her."  The  moral  and  the 
intellectual  influences  of  the  Sunday-school  fall 
short  of  their  noblest  end,  they  fail  to  touch  the 
high-water  mark  of  their  fullest  power,  unless  some 
distinct  effort  be  made  to  crown  each  life  with 
complete  consecration  to  Christ.  The  Sunday- 
school  is  a  reforming  and  informing  agency ;  but, 
more  than  this,  it  is  under  God  a  transforming 
power.  And  here  it  is  that  the  minister  should 
do  his  best  work. 

1  Ps.  148  :  12. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       200. 

I  have  already  counseled  the  minister  to  be  in 
the  Sunday-school  every  Sunday.  "Frequently," 
said  Mr.  Spurgeon  to  one  of  his  students,  "  visit 
your  Sabbath-schools,  if  it  is  only  to  walk  through 
them." *  Of  a  devoted  English  clergyman,  his 
friend  writes  :  "  I  remember  hearing  him  say  in  the 
Sunday-school  that,  during  the  whole  of  six  and 
twenty  years,  except  when  away  on  his  official 
duties  at  Chester  Cathedral,  he  had  only  twice 
failed  to  be  present  in  the  school  by  at  least  two 
minutes  before  the  regular  hour  for  opening  on 
Sunday  morning."  2  I  make  this  point  again,  and 
in  this  place,  because  of  what  has  to  be  said  about 
the  minister  as  a  spiritual  force  in  the  life  of  the 
school.  If  he  is  rarely  seen  there,  his  occasional 
presence  will  either  be  passed  over  with  indiffer- 
ence, or  associated  in  the  minds  of  teachers  and 
scholars  with  a  kind  of  officialism.  He  will  have 
come  only  to  do  his  duty,  or  perhaps  to  make  a 
formal  attack  on  their  souls. 

Let  the  minister  be  there  regularly,  and  he  will 
be  what  every  minister  should  aim  to  be,  namely, 
the  pastor  of  the  school.  Dr.  S.  G.  Green,  in  his 
lectures  on  "  Christian  Ministry  to  the  Young,"  3 
speaks  of  one  pastor  who  "  conducted  the  opening 
service  of  the  school  weekly  for  many  years.  The 
teachers  and  children  knew  they  would  meet  their 

1  "  Reminiscences  of  C.  H.  Spurgeon,"  by  W.  Williams,  p.  194. 
2  Davies,  "  Successful  Preachers,"  p.  278.  3  Green,  p.  182. 


210      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

minister  there  at  nine  on  Sunday  morning,  and  the 
consequence  was  a  regularity  and  fullness  of  at- 
tendance hardly  to  be  paralleled  under  ordinary 
circumstances." 

Without  going  the  length  of  Dr.  Stephen  Tyng, 
of  New  York,  who  believed  in  the  minister  "tak- 
ing the  pastoral  charge  and  superintendence  of  his 
own  school,"  I  should  say  with  him  that  it  is  the 
minister's  duty  "  to  give  his  mind  and  time  and 
presence  and  actual  labor,  to  the  work  of  saving 
and  teaching  the  children  of  his  flock."  ! 

I  mention  three  essentials  to  success  in  this 
work. 

The  first  is  pastoral  sympathy.  The  minister 
must  be  there  as  the  mother  is  in  her  nursery, 
because  he  loves  to  be,  and  indeed  cannot  stay 
away.  No  doubt  there  are  men  to  whom  this 
comes  more  easily  than  it  does  to  others.  Dogs 
and  children,  it  is  said,  make  few  mistakes  in  their 
judgment  of  people.  There  are  ministers  and 
men,  not  only  of  great  eloquence,  but  of  genuine 
kindness  of  heart  too,  who  are  not  at  home  among 
children.  But  they  are  the  exceptions.  There 
are  others  again  of  whom  it  is  true  to  say  that 
they  seem  never  to  have  been  children  themselves. 
They  were  born  old,  and  swaddled  in  buckram. 
To  them  a  healthy,  vigorous,  demonstrative  boy  is 

1  "  Forty  Years'  Experience,"  etc.,  p.  196. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL       211 

like  a  Fourth  of  July  every  day,  no  one  can  tell 
when  he  will  go  off,  or  what  mischief  he  will  do 
when  he  explodes.  Such  men  may  have  their 
place  in  the  ministry,  alas,  who  has  not  ?  but  not 
in  the  Sunday-school.  The  first  qualification  for 
pastoral  success  among  the  young  is  for  the  pastor 
to  be  himself  young  at  heart. 

The  second  is,  pastoral  knowledge.  Let  the 
minister  cultivate  the  art  of  remembering  names. 
His  visits  to  the  homes  will  help  him  here.  And 
when  he  fails,  a  little  tact  may  be  used  to  bring 
him  the  information  he  needs.  Jonathan  Edwards 
might  be  allowed  to  ask  the  same  boy  his  name 
twice  in  the  course  of  an  hour,  receiving  in  re- 
sponse to  his  question,  put  a  second  time,  "  Whose 
boy  are  you?"  the  answer,  "Noah  Holmes'  boy, 
sir,  the  same  boy  that  I  was  an  hour  ago  "  ;  but  it 
is  not  allowed  to  many  of  us  to  forget  and  to  be 
forgiven  as  was  he.  It  will  gain  ready  access  to 
the  hearts  of  our  young  people  if  we  know  their 
names,  their  homes,  and  some  point  in  the  life  or 
tastes  of  each  which  shall  particularize  every  case, 
and  make  each  one  stand,  if  not  on  his  own  merits, 
which  might  be  an  insufficient  footing  for  many  of 
them,  at  all  events  on  his  own  individuality. 

To  pastoral  sympathy  and  pastoral  knowledge, 
it  is  natural  to  add  pastoral  oversight.  Doctor 
Tyng,  looking  in  at  the  door  of  his  main  Sunday- 
school  room  at  St.  George's,  New  York,  could  say 


212       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

with  honest  pride,  as  his  glance  swept  over  all  the 
classes  of  that  busy  throng :  "  Every  teacher  in 
that  room  started  under  my  eye  as  a  scholar  in 
the  infant  class.  I  have  trained  them  all  myself  ; 
and  I  know  them  all ;  and  they  know  me.  They 
are  my  children  in  the  faith."  This  is  a  rare  case, 
of  course,  and  yet  measurably  it  may  be  true  of 
the  minister  that  by  his  presence,  his  sympathy, 
his  careful  attention  to  his  school,  he  may  gain  a 
power  over  it  which  shall  make  him  the  overseer, 
the  bishop  indeed.  In  one  direction,  certainly, 
he  will  need  to  be  vigilant.  Around  the  Sunday- 
school,  as  around  the  outer  courts  about  the  tem- 
ple at  Jerusalem,  grow  up  organizations  of  many 
kinds.  Boys'  Brigades,  in  which  Henry  Drum- 
mond  placed  more  faith  than  most  of  us  do ; 
church  guilds,  for  more  purposes  than  I  have 
time  to  enumerate;  Baraca  bands;  prayer  circles; 
Bible  reading  alliances  ;  these  and  many  others 
have  trained  themselves  about  the  parent  trunk 
until  sometimes  you  cannot  see  the  tree  for  leaves. 
My  present  contention  is  that  none  of  these  should 
be  allowed  to  grow  away  from  the  minister's  over- 
sight. He  will  need,  if  he  watches  for  souls  as  one 
that  must  give  account,  to  use  each  of  them  as  a 
channel  of  spiritual  influence. 

The  man  who  in  his  early  ministry  won  for  him- 
self the  title  of  "  the  model  preacher  of  Con- 
necticut," and  who  later  achieved  as  honorable  a 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL       213 

success  in  St.  Louis,  I  mean  Dr.  Constans  L. 
Goodell,  was  the  ideal  Sunday-school  pastor.  Few 
left  his  church  after  the  morning  service,  almost 
the  whole  congregation,  with  additions  from  the 
younger  children,  took  part  in  the  after  hour  of 
Bible  study.  He  says  : l  "  The  pastor  will  reach 
the  children  through  the  Bible-school.  That  is 
not  the  children's  church,  but  it  is  the  church  and 
pastor  mingling  with  the  children,  and  laying  out 
all  their  experience  and  wisdom  and  spiritual 
power  on  them  for  their  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness. The  pastor  is  always  in  the  Bible-school. 
He  thus  brings  the  adults  and  youth  together,  re- 
taining the  older  scholars  in  the  school  ...  all 
bound  together  by  mutual  interest.  The  Sabbath- 
school  becomes  a  constant  feeder  of  the  church, 
and  the  church  becomes  a  garden  enclosed  about 
the  children.     Is  not  this  God's  order?" 

This  was  the  man  who  won  the  children's 
hearts  as  Jesus  did,  not  with  treats  and  presents 
and  cheap  pleasantries,  but  with  the  gracious  and 
sympathetic  spirit  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  it- 
self. And  we  do  not  wonder  when  his  biographer 
tells  us  that  "  when  Doctor  Goodell  died,  a  little 
boy  of  another  church  and  Sunday-school,  ran 
home  and  said  to  his  mother,  '  Oh,  mamma,  the 
children's  friend  is  dead  ! '  " 

1  "The  Advance,"  May  24,  1888. 


214      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

We  have  now  reached  the  key  to  the  situation, 
and  must  condense,  on  the  minister  putting  forth 
all  his  influence  in  the  school  for  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  scholars. 

The  first  essential  is  that  between  the  pastor 
and  the  teachers  in  the  school  there  should  be  the 
heartiest  sympathy  in  this  matter ;  I  am  almost 
tempted  to  say  that  the  one  thing  needful  in  a 
Sunday-school  teacher  is  that  he  should  be  "  a 
Christian,  and  a  Christian  of  a  pronounced  type ; 
not  one  whose  conduct  belies  his  doctrine,  for  God, 
looking  through  the  eyes  of  a  little  child,  will  be 
quick  to  detect  that ;  not  one  who  is  perfunctory 
in  his  attendance,  considering  it  a  tax  or  a  conde- 
scension ;  but  one  who  acts  from  the  highest  mo- 
tives. It  is  a  mistake  to  think  any  one  will  do 
for  a  Sunday-school  teacher.  He  ought  to  be 
selected  from  the  saintliest  and  best  and  wisest  of 
the  church."1 

Paul  writing  to  Philemon  sends  greeting  "  to 
the  church  in  thy  house."  That  teacher  is  happy 
who  has  a  church  in  his  class,  and  who  meeting 
with  those  who  have  made  a  religious  decision 
unites  with  them  in  prayer  and  conference  for  the 
conversion  of  the  rest.  Now  and  then  the  pastor 
also  will  do  wisely  to  meet  with  them.  Let  him 
feel  the  pulse  of  each  class. 

1  Rev.  George  Short,  B.  A. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       215 

"The  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor,"  or  its 
equivalent,  in  the  church,  should  be  kept  in  close 
touch  with  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  school. 
That  organization,  however  new  and  original  in  its 
title  and  machinery,  is  in  spirit  one  with  organiza- 
tions which  have  long  been  in  healthful  operation 
in  many  of  our  British  and  New  England  churches.1 
They  are  the  safest  nurseries  for  Christian  culture. 
It  matters  little  what  name  they  bear,  or  what  is 
the  special  apparatus  with  which  they  work ;  badges 
and  buttons  are  sometimes  foolish  enough  ;  the 
weeds  of  laws  and  by-laws  may,  if  mistaken  for  the 
essentials,  spring  up  and  choke  the  free  and  health- 
ful growth  of  the  good  seed  of  the  kingdom  ;  but 
the  society  of  young  people  banded  together  for  a 
vigorous  and  persistent  endeavor  after  the  divine 
life,  is  necessary  to  the  highest  welfare  of  the 
church  and  the  school.  The  pastor  should  be 
present,  rather  however  to  suggest  than  to  con- 
trol at  the  religious  meetings  of  his  young  people. 
It  is  these  gatherings  that  are  likely  to  register 
the  rise  of  spiritual  fervor,  the  tides  of  the  Spirit, 
which  taken  at  the  flood  carry  him  and  his  people 
out  into  the  deep  seas  of  religious  prosperity. 

The  Sunday-school  in  which  the  minister  keeps 
the  subject  of  religious  decision  prominent  in 
private  conversation  and  in  public  appeals,  will  be 

1  Trumbull,  p.  293. 


2l6       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

the  school  best  prepared  for  such  special  efforts  as 
ought  occasionally  to  be  made  for  the  conversion 
of  the  unconverted  in  the  classes.  It  will  be  borne 
in  upon  him  at  certain  times,  or  it  will  become  the 
conviction  of  the  most  earnest  and  devoted  of  his 
teachers,  or  perhaps  the  solicitude  of  a  mother  for 
the  conversion  of  her  boy  may  be  the  single  in- 
centive to  it,  but  in  one  or  another  way  he  will  be- 
come impressed  with  the  feeling  that  the  school  is 
ripening  for  a  harvest. 

The  history  of  religious  revivals  is  closely  con- 
nected with  the  history  of  Sunday-schools.  The 
spiritual  dearth  of  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  broken  up  by  the  great  religious 
awakening  in  New  England  and  Great  Britain.  At 
once  the  heart  of  the  church  was  moved  to  solic- 
itude for  the  conversion  of  children.  There  were 
obstacles  of  traditionalism  to  be  met  and  swept 
away,  of  course.  But  with  clear  and  open  vision 
the  master  minds,  from  John  Wesley  to  Lyman 
Beecher,  saw  in  that  widespread  quickening  their 
opportunity,  and  with  an  intense  and  unabated 
passion  drove  toward  it.1  To  the  loving  nature  of 
Wesley,  the  Sunday-school  seemed  "  one  of  the 
noblest  specimens  of  charity  which  has  been  set  on 
foot  since  the  Norman  conquest "  ;  and  that  hero 
of  a  hundred  revivals,  Doctor  Lyman  Beecher,  lived 

1  Tyerman's  "Wesley,"  Vol.  III.,  p.  522. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       2\J 

to  see  the  prophecies  of  his  earlier  years  as  to 
Sabbath-schools  more  than  realized.1  In  Scotland, 
among  a  people  excessively  conservative  of  ances- 
tral faith  and  traditional  practice,  Thomas  Chal- 
mers, perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  her  reformers, 
beheld  in  the  Sunday-school  the  new  power  which 
would  stem  the  woful  degeneracy  going  on  in  the 
religious  habit  and  character  of  the  country,  and 
he  challenged  the  parents  of  his  native  land  "  to 
regard  a  well-conducted  Sabbath-school  in  any 
other  light  than  as  a  blessing  and  an  acquisition  to 
their  children."  2 

Without  adding  to  their  testimonies,  I  need  only 
appeal  to  our  own  experience.  Is  it  not  true  that 
the  Sunday-school  in  every  large  and  vigorous 
Christian  church  has  at  intervals  a  time  of  special 
religious  revival  ?  And  on  the  conduct  of  the  serv- 
ices at  such  seasons,  does  not  the  future,  not  of  the 
school  alone  but  also  of  the  church  itself,  largely 
depend  ?  Pastoral  responsibility  is  never  a  reality 
more  serious  than  now.  I  urge  upon  the  minis- 
ter respect  for  "the  soul  of  the  child."  In  the 
special  services  which  you  hold  with  the  scholars 
dread  nothing  more  than  injuring  the  natural  deli- 
cacy of  a  young  faith.  "  Let  the  preacher,"  says 
Dr.  S.  G.  Green,  "  beware  of  arousing  emotions 
and  demonstrations  after  which  almost   anything 

1  Trumbull,  p.  124.  *  Ibid.,  p.  162. 


2l8       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

must  be  an  anti-climax";  and  he  cautions  us 
against  such  exhibitions  as  impair  the  modesty  of 
childhood,  and  minister  either  to  thoughtlessness 
or  irreverence  or  both.1 

What  services  in  all  the  ministry  of  the  word 
call  for  greater  delicacy  of  touch  than  these  ?  For 
what  does  one  need  more  the  prepared  heart, 
the  heart  of  the  Christ  of  the  children  ?  We  are 
to  deal  with  the  plastic  nature  of  childhood,  the 
impressionable  nature  of  youth.  Already  in  some 
hearts  the  hardening  processes  are  going  on. 
Some  are  even  now  feeling  the  first  dim  fascina- 
tion of  the  evils  that  are  in  the  world.  To  win 
the  children  for  Christ  has  been  the  aim  of  the 
wisest  of  men  and  women  in  the  church  universal 
through  all  time.  If  St.  Francis  Xavier  cries  : 2 
"  Give  me  the  children  until  they  are  seven  years 
old,  and  any  one  may  take  them  afterward," 
none  the  less  urgent  is  Luther's  tone  as  he  says  : 
"  Young  children  and  scholars  are  the  seed  and 
the  source  of  the  church."  We  listen  to  Cardinal 
Manning  when  he  declares  :  "  Give  me  the  children 
and  England  shall  be  Catholic  in  twenty  years," 
only  to  draw  from  his  words  a  still  loftier  courage  as 
sweeping  a  far  wider  area  we  dare  assert :  "  Give  the 
children  to  Christ,  and  in  twenty  years  the  world 
shall  be  Christian."    A  child's  theology  may  not  be 

1  "  Lectures  on  Sunday-school,"  p.  181. 
2  Trumbull,  pp.  67,  71. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL       219 

the  theology  of  the  churches  which  embodies  itself 
in  the  creeds  of  Christendom,  but  we  know  little  of 
the  child's  heart  until  we  have  found  that  there  is 
in  it  the  possibility  of  a  consciousness  of  wrong- 
doing, a  sorrow  for  sin,  a  desire  to  change,  and  a 
love  for  the  Saviour  quickened  by  the  sense  of  a 
need  of  him.  The  religion  of  the  child  is  not  en- 
tirely emotional,  and  when  boyhood  and  girlhood 
are  reached  there  is  an  ability  to  grasp  and  to  ap- 
ply the  simple  theology  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  is  as  real  in  its  spirit  and  as  clear  in  its 
mental  apprehension  as  that  which  comes  in  later 
years.  The  little  child  is  the  ideal  of  the  believer, 
and  rises  before  us  through  all  the  centuries  with 
the  arms  of  Jesus  about  him  as  the  model  for  him 
who  would  enter  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  and  we 
know  that  that  kingdom  is  "righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  In  what  we 
have  to  say,  therefore,  during  a  time  of  special 
spiritual  interest  in  the  Sunday-school,  let  us  not 
deal  only  in  the  anecdotal.  Illustrate  truth  by  all 
means,  but  first  make  quite  plain  the  truth  we 
propose  to  illustrate. 

The  beginning  of  these  special  efforts  for  the 
conversion  of  the  scholars  should  be  as  quiet  and 
natural  as  possible.  Some  Sunday  morning  or 
afternoon  when  the  signs  are  favorable,  having 
previously  obtained  the  consent  of  the  superin- 
tendent, let  the  regular  exercises  of  the  school  be 


220      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

so  arranged  that  the  last  ten  minutes  can  be  given 
to  the  pastor.  Let  him  talk  at  once,  directly,  with 
great  plainness  and  earnestness,  upon  the  need 
for  personal  salvation  and  the  opportunity  for  it. 
Let  him  call  for  manifestations  of  religious  de- 
cision. Methods  will  vary,  but  the  thing  itself  is 
what  is  aimed  at.  Let  this  meeting  lead  to 
others,  still  more  distinctly  evangelistic  in  their 
character.  I  think  that  a  gathering  of  those  whose 
hearts  are  touched  may  be  appointed  for  that  same 
Sunday,  in  the  afternoon,  or  let  them  come  to  tho 
meeting  of  the  young  people  in  the  evening. 
Have  two  or  three  meetings  in  the  week.  Keep 
them  clear  of  all  formality,  and  in  all  let  there 
be  a  wise  but  vigorous  drawing  of  the  net. 

Let  none  underrate  the  importance  of  such  a 
time  of  religious  awakening.  It  cannot  be  sum- 
moned at  will.  It  cannot  be  got  up  at  the  bidding 
of  a  peripatetic  evangelist.  It  has  as  little  in 
common  with  the  mechanical  artifices  of  the 
worked-up  revival  as  the  natural  motions  of  the 
human  body  have  with  the  wooden  gestures  of  a 
painter's  dummy.  Let  the  pastor  take  the  work 
very  seriously,  for  is  it  not  his  ?  As  truly  as  any 
scholar  in  the  school  he  can  pray  for  himself : 

Gentle  Jesus,  meek  and  mild, 
Look  upon  a  little  child  ; 
Pity  my  simplicity, 
Suffer  me  to  come  to  thee. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL       221 

With  as  genuine  a  humility  as  Solomon's  can  he 
plead  :  "  O  Lor  J,  my  God,  thou  hast  made  thy 
servant  king :  .  .  and  I  am  but  a  little  child  :  I  know 
not  how  to  go  out  or  come  in."  l  The  conscious- 
ness of  ignorance  is  a  good  sympton  in  teacher  as 
well  as  in  scholar.  It  is  the  first  step  toward 
enlightenment.  Margaret  Fuller  was  always 
cheered  when  any  of  her  pupils  wrote  to  her  say- 
ing that  they  felt  their  ignorance.  She  would 
label  such  letters  "  under  conviction." 

Now,  if  ever,  the  familiar  saying,  **  The  Sunday- 
school  is  the  nursery  of  the  church,"  will  take  on 
a  very  solemn  and  inspiring  purport.  The  minis- 
ter will  repeat  it  to  himself  in  this  new  atmosphere 
of  experiences,  and  in  the  clear,  resonant  air  it  will 
carry  a  pressure  of  meaning  bordering  on  the  sub- 
lime. Should  he  be  so  happy  as  to  remain  with 
one  church  for  many  years,  or  at  any  rate  to  keep 
track  of  it,  he  will  as  time  goes  on  see  the  fruitage 
of  efforts  which,  when  he  put  them  forth,  seemed 
just  as  natural  as  breathing,  and  the  contrast  will 
come  home  to  him  between  the  simple  letting  fall 
of  the  seed  from  the  hand  of  the  sower,  and  the 
golden  glory  of  the  harvest,  by  and  by.  I  shall 
not  be  chargeable  with  exaggeration  if  I  say  that 
to  the  Sunday-school  and  to  the  honest  work  of 
teachers  and  pastor  for  the  religious  decision  of 

1  i  Kings  3  :  7. 


222       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

the  scholars,  we  are  indebted  for  the  devoted  lives 
of  many  of  the  very  best  who  are  serving  the 
church  of  Christ  to-day.  Our  elders  and  deacons 
and  office-bearers,  our  wisest  superintendents,  and 
our  most  earnest  and  intelligent  teachers,  were 
born  again  in  the  Sunday-school.  They  have  given 
back  to  her  what  she  first  gave  them,  good  measure 
pressed  down  and  running  over.  And  what  shall 
I  say  as  to  the  service  which  the  Sunday-school 
has  rendered  to  the  Christian  ministry  ?  What 
need  that  I  say  anything  when  the  ranks  of  every 
theological  seminary,  the  record  of  every  pulpit, 
the  annals  of  every  mission  field  are  ready  with 
their  witnesses  ?  Professor  Drummond  found,  as 
the  result  of  his  inquiries  of  a  number  of  mission- 
aries, that  the  average  age  at  which  they  began 
to  think  of  the  foreign  field  was  when  they  were 
thirteen  years  old ;  and  had  his  inquiries  been 
pushed  farther  and  carried  over  a  still  wider  range, 
I  believe  the  result  would  have  confirmed  the  con- 
viction, which  has  grown  in  my  mind  to  a  cer- 
tainty, that  the  Sunday-school  is  the  place  where 
first  the  future  minister  or  missionary  hears  the 
voice  of  the  Lord,  and  where  earliest  comes  the 
response,  u  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth." 
I  would  close  what  has  been  said  on  this  subject 
with  two  words  of  counsel.  First,  let  none  be 
hasty  in  bringing  the  scholars  into  the  church. 
There  should  be  some  equivalent  in  every  denom- 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       223 

ination  for  the  primitive  catechumen  class,  for  the 
confirmation  class  of  the  Episcopalian  Church,  and 
for  the  probationary  training  given  in  other  com- 
munions. The  main  thing  for  us  is  to  make  good 
work.  Once  a  week,  for  some  time,  let  the  pastor 
meet  the  candidates  for  church-membership  from 
among  the  scholars,  and  have  personal  conversa- 
tion with  them  one  by  one.  The  annual  loss  from 
our  church  lists  is,  I  am  persuaded,  due  in  a  large 
measure  to  the  lack  of  careful  preparatory  train- 
ing. 

It  is  due  also  to  the  absence  of  after  training, 
and  so  I  would  further  advise  that  the  pastor  meet 
the  young  members  of  the  church  for  brief  courses 
on  such  subjects  as  the  elements  of  religion,  the 
meaning  of  the  Christian  ordinances,  the  history 
of  the  religious  denomination  to  which  they  have 
attached  themselves,  and  their  duties  and  priv- 
ileges as  members  of  a  local  church.  "  Precept 
must  be  upon  precept,  precept  upon  precept; 
line  upon  line,  line  upon  line  ;  here  a  little,  and 
there  a  little."  It  is  hard  to  clear  the  minister  of 
responsibility  for  very  much  of  the  defection  in 
the  ranks  of  church-membership  when  we  reflect 
how  remiss  he  has  been  here.  To  bring  into  the 
church  is  good  ;  but  to  keep  in  the  church  is 
better  ;  and  yet  in  his  eagerness  to  swell  the  num- 
bers of  the  fellowship  how  often  the  minister  over- 
looks the  other  end  of  the  procession,  and  fails  to 


224       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

notice  that  the  untrained  and  the  ill-fed  are  falling 
away  as  fast  as  the  new  recruits  are  coming  in. 
Christian  nurture  is  a  minister's  duty  as  well  as 
converting  zeal.  "Take  heed  therefore  unto  all 
the  flock  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made 
you  overseers,  to  feed  the  church  of  God,  which 
he  hath  purchased  with  his  own  blood." 

Between  the  home  and  the  school  there  will  be 
no  rivalry  if  the  pastor's  interests  are  given  to  the 
one  as  much  as  to  the  other.  They  are  but  sepa- 
rate rooms  in  one  house.  The  early  practice,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  for  the  father  to  be  priest  as 
well  as  patriarch  in  his  own  household.  And  in 
theory  the  belief  lingered  into  our  own  century 
that  parents  spent  some  time,  certainly,  on  Sun- 
day, in  instructing  their  children.  How  sincere 
the  objection  to  the  Sunday-school  on  the  ground 
that  it  usurped  this  parental  duty  and  left  the  in- 
fant Moses  to  the  mercies  of  the  Nile  it  is  not 
necessary  for  us  to  determine.  It  was  heard  most 
loudly  in  an  age  of  general  parental  neglect,  and 
sometimes  it  was  raised  by  the  clergy  who  were 
jealous  lest  the  office  of  the  sponsor  and  of  the 
minister  should  be  set  aside.  Yet  it  is  in  evi- 
dence that  the  Sunday-school  was  forced  into  ex- 
istence by  parental  and  priestly  neglect.  Alike 
the  home  instruction  and  the  parochial  system  had 
failed  in  the  cities  of  England,  as  Raikes  found 
when  he  was  appalled  at  the  profligacy  of  the  chil- 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL       22  5 

dren  in  Gloucester,  and  in  the  rural  districts  as 
Hannah  More  discovered  when  the  rich  farmer  in 
one  village  assured  her  that  "  religion  would  be 
the  ruin  of  agriculture,  that  it  was  a  very  danger- 
ous thing,  and  had  produced  much  mischief  ever 
since  it  was  introduced  by  the  monks  down  at 
Glastonbury."  *  I  have  little  belief  in  the  honesty 
of  this  sudden  access  of  parental  virtue  which  had 
to  be  met  in  Scotland,  for  example,  by  the  fervid 
eloquence  of  Chalmers  arguing  that  the  alterna- 
tive was  "not  whether  the  rising  generation  should 
be  trained  to  Christianity  in  schools  or  trained  to 
it  under  the  roof  of  their  fathers  ;  but  whether 
they  shall  be  trained  to  it  in  schools  or  not  trained 
at  all."  2  I  say  I  have  little  belief  in  the  honesty 
of  this  objection  to  Sunday-schools  when  I  learn 
that,  at  the  time  when  they  were  founded,  in  Scot- 
land the  immorality  in  the  homes  of  the  upper 
classes  and  the  wretchedness  of  the  hovels  of  the 
poor  defied  description  ;  that  in  Ireland  even  the 
children  of  Protestants  were  "no  better  than 
heathen  " ;  that  in  England,  William  Wilberforce 
was  shocked  at  finding  that  within  three  miles  of 
a  cathedral  city  every  house  in  one  village,  and 
that  a  sample  of  all  the  rest,  was  a  scene  of  the 
greatest  ignorance  and  vice ;  and  that  in  America, 
while   skepticism  was  as  much  the  fashion   in   the 

1  "  Mendip  Annals,"  p.  14.         2  Trumbull,  pp.  160-162. 
P 


226      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

colleges  as  though  it  had  been  a  species  of  ath- 
letics, among  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims,  re- 
ligious instruction  in  the  family  and  in  the  church 
had  so  far  declined  that  Lyman  Beecher  declared 
that  "  the  result  was  a  band  of  infidels  and  here- 
tics and  profligates."  1  The  fact  is,  that  the  Sun- 
day-school, so  far  from  usurping  the  place  of  home, 
has  made  it  in  many  instances  sweet  home,  and 
has  restored  to  it  the  sanctities  and  endearments 
of  which  irreligion  had  threatened  to  despoil  it. 

And  if  the  Sunday-school  has  not  put  itself  in 
rivalry  with  the  home,  equally  true  is  it  to  assert 
that  it  has  not  put  itself  in  rivalry  with  the  church. 
Occasionally  some  champion  of  the  exclusive  spir- 
itual prerogative  of  the  clergy — a  survival  of  the 
Dark  Ages — raises  his  voice  in  honest  but  bigoted 
warning.  The  Sunday-school  is  arraigned  because 
of  "  incompetence  of  the  teachers  to  give  religious 
instruction,  because  it  is  destructive  of  church- 
going,  and  because  it  has  done  much  to  destroy 
parental  responsibility  and  priestly  obligation."  2 
And  all  the  time  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy 
declares  that  it  is  the  divinely  constituted  guardian 
of  faith  and  morals.  Against  those  claims,  which 
are  as  dangerous  to  civil  liberty  as  they  are  to 
religious  progress,  the  Sunday-school  may  build 
an  effectual  barrier.3 

1  Trumbull,  p.  167. 
2  1899.  3  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale's  "Life,"  p.  286. 


THE    MINISTER    IN    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL       227 

In  the  Old  World,  as  every  reader  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  eighteenth  century  knows,  the  Sunday- 
school  has  been  one  of  the  most  powerful  agencies 
for  reviving:  the  church.  It  has  kindled  the  zeal 
of  both  the  clergy  and  the  laity.  It  has  made  re- 
ligion, as  it  is  embodied  in  a  visible  fellowship,  a 
necessary  element  in  the  life  of  the  people.  And 
in  America  the  Sunday-school  has  led  in  the  west- 
ward march  of  emigration,  and  the  Sunday-school 
Union  alone  for  three-quarters  of  a  century  has 
been  organizing  neighborhood  Sunday-schools  at  the 
average  rate  of  three  every  day.1  From  the  school 
has  grown  the  church,  and  the  one  has  as  truly  been 
the  precursor  of  the  other,  as  Caxton's  printing 
press  was  the  precursor  of  Tyndale's  English  Bible. 

How  much  the  school  has  done  for  the  church 
by  renewing  her  youth  I  need  not  say.  What  the 
author  of  "  Alice  in  Wonderland  " — in  whom  "the 
boy  never  quite  left  the  man" — said  of  the  world 
at  large  we  can  say  of  thousands  of  vigorous  and 
prosperous  churches  :  "  It  is  the  glory  of  the 
world  that  there  is  a  perpetual  succession  of 
happy  young  life,  given  to  pour  fresh  blood  into 
the  sluggish  veins  of  humanity  and  set  its  heart 
beating  again  with  that  hopefulness  which  is  God's 
best  gift.  The  heaviest  curse  which  he  could  lay 
upon  us  would  be  to  keep  us  living  on  forever  in 

1  Trumbull,  p.  189. 


228       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

a  world  in  which  no  new  life  was  seen  and  to  let 
the  human  race  grow  older  without  sending  young 
faces  to  brighten  its  weary  visions,  and  remind  it 
of  its  own  childhood.  We  should  get  mad  and 
savage  enough  to  devour  each  other  at  last,  if  the 
children  did  not  come  to  keep  us  sane  and  fill  us 
with  gentler  thoughts  ;  they  give  us  something  to 
work  for  when  we  are  tired  of  working  for  our- 
selves ;  they  refurnish  our  world  with  new  hopes 
when  all  our  dear  old  hopes  are  dead ;  they  make 
us  believe  in  God  again  when  the  sorrows  of  life 
have  driven  us  faithless ;  and  they  help  to  keep  us 
in  the  better  way  for  their  sake,  when  if  we 
thought  only  of  ourselves  we  might  drift  into  the 
evil  way.  What  are  they  but  his  jewels  of  bright, 
celestial  worth  ?  What  are  they  but  ladders  set 
up  from  heaven  to  earth?"1 

I  believe  that  it  would  be  capable  of  proof  that 
the  children  have  done  fully  as  much  for  the 
church  as  the  church  has  done  for  the  children. 
If  the  school  is  the  pioneer  of  the  sanctuary  in 
many  a  wild  Western  settlement,  equally  is  it,  to 
every  Christian  fellowship,  the  adjunct  aiming  to 
introduce  the  entire  congregation,  young  and  old, 
to  systematic  Bible  study,  and  the  feeder  bringing 
to  it  from  the  world  about  it  the  new  blood  by 
which  its  life  is  to  be  sustained. 

1  Lewis  Carroll. 


VII 

THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  THE 
TWENTIETH  CENTURY 


The  Sunday-school  must  be  in  touch  with  the  times. 
Signs  of  dissatisfaction.  Criticism.  To  keep  abreast  of 
the  new  century  the  Sunday-school  must  (i)  respond  to  its 
inevitable  demands — life  centering  in  great  cities,  danger 
of    the    Sunday-school    growing    away    from    the    people  ; 

(2)  fall  in  with  the  philanthropic  sentiment  of  the  century  ; 

(3)  sympathize  with  the  religious  thought  of  the  century — 
the  emphasis  on  the  life  that  now  is  as  determining  the  life 
that  is  to  come  ;  (4)  avail  itself  of  the  progressive  intelli- 
gence of  the  century — the  model  school,  the  building,  offi- 
cers, new  methods,  teachers,  classes,  teaching. 

Conclusion  :  The  minister  lives  for  the  future  in  caring 
for  the  young  life  of  the  congregation. 


VII 

THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL    AND    TWENTIETH    CENTURY 

Our  study  of  the  Sunday-school  would  not  be 
complete  without  a  forward  glance  over  the  cen- 
tury whose  threshold  we  have  so  lately  crossed. 
To  this  we  turn  in  conclusion.  The  modern  Sun- 
day-school is  already  more  than  a  hundred  years 
old.  Both  the  experimental  stage  and  the  stage 
of  reaction  from  the  first  enthusiasm  have  been 
safely  survived.  From  the  beginning  the  move- 
ment had  in  it  elements  which  augured  well  for  its 
permanence.  Its  first  leaders  might  be  opposed, 
but  they  could  not  be  despised.  An  enterprise 
which  enlisted  the  active  devotion  of  Raikes,  with 
his  business  sagacity,  of  Hannah  More,  with  her 
brilliant  social  charm,  of  Charles  of  Bala,  with  his 
apostolic  zeal,  of  William  Wilberforce,  the  peer  of 
William  Pitt  for  eloquence,  and  of  John  Wesley, 
the  foremost  religious  leader  of  the  century,  was 
bound  to  succeed.  Its  founders  were  not  fanatics 
nor  visionaries.  They  were  eminently  sane  and 
practical,  and  their  intellects  were  as  keen  as  their 
affections  were  warm. 

The    closing  years  of    the  eighteenth    century 

231 


232       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

saw  the  rise  of  the  modern  Sunday-school.  The 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  gave  to  it  shape,  unit- 
ing its  range,  concentrating  its  powers,  and  organ- 
izing its  forces.  To  the  second  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  fell  the  still  harder  task  of  im- 
proving the  teaching  in  the  Sunday-school,  and 
here  it  was  the  Americans  outstripped  all  others 
and  furnished  Sunday-school  literature  which  is 
incomparably  superior  to  that  of  any  other  coun- 
try. 

That  the  Sunday-school  still  falls  short  of  what 
it  might  be  is  evident  enough.  It  must  keep  in 
the  full  current  of  the  century  if  it  is  to  live  and 
to  fulfill  its  high  destiny.  Perhaps  it  is  a  matter 
for  congratulation,  rather  than  for  complaint,  that 
the  truest  friends  of  the  Sunday-school  movement 
are  the  frankest  of  its  critics.  No  more  than  any 
other  institution  is  it  secure  against  the  tendency 
to  fossilize. 

Many  of  the  best  and  ablest  leaders  in  the  affairs  of 
God,  says  one  writer,1  are  vigilant  and  vigorous  in  devising 
and  applying  new  ideas  to  the  system  as  it  is  in  vogue. 
The  process  has  been  in  the  main  one  of  graft  upon  an  un- 
pruned  stock,  and  the  result  a  rather  elaborate  and,  per- 
haps, not  altogether  homogeneous  and  healthy  organism. 
The  feeling  lives  and  grows  that  the  institution  not  only  is 
imperfect,  but  is  falling  short  of  that  degree  of  efficiency 
which  fairly  should  be  looked  for  in  an  institution  of  so  im- 
portant professed  mission.      In  the  average  Sunday-school 

1  W.  H.  S.  Demarest,  "The  Presbyterian  Review,"  Jan.  7,  1901. 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    233 

there  are  unquestioned  defects    in  work  and   lack  of  re- 
sults. 

The  Sunday-school  of  the  twentieth  century 
must  be  kept  abreast  of  the  times.  How  shall  this 
be  done  ? 

We  answer,  first,  by  responding  to  the  inevita- 
ble demands  of  the  century.  When  Raikes  first 
drew  public  attention  to  the  work  which  was  being 
done  in  his  school  he  laid  the  chief  stress  on  the 
country  and  not  on  the  city  life,  which  it  aimed  to 
reform. 

Farmers  and  other  inhabitants  of  the  towns  and  villages 
complain  that  they  receive  more  injury  in  their  property 
on  the  Sabbath  than  all  the  week  beside.  This,  in  a  great 
measure,  proceeds  from  the  lawless  state  of  the  younger 
class,  who  are  allowed  to  run  wild  on  that  day,  free  from 
every  restraint.  To  remedy  this  evil,  persons  duly  quali- 
fied are  employed  to  instruct  those  that  cannot  read  ;  and 
those  that  may  have  learnt  to  read  are  taught  the  catechism 
and  conducted  to  church.1 

Although  his  work  began  in  a  city,  it  was  a 
city  of  no  great  size,  and  England  was  still  a  rural 
community.  This  is  no  longer  the  case  in  the 
Old  World,  and  still  less  is  it  the  case  in  the  New. 
Human  life  is  more  and  more  centering  in  cities. 
The  Sunday-school  of  the  time  in  which  we  live 
must  not  be  suffered  to  grow  away  from  the 
masses  of  the  people.     It  must  not  yield  to  the 

1  "Gloucester  Journal,"  Nov.  3,  1783. 


234       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

temptation  to  which  too  many  churches  have 
yielded  and  move  off  from  the  crowded  courts  and 
congested  tenements.  It  must  march  with  the 
wholesome  impulse  which  is  now  working  in  uni- 
versity settlements,  and  multiplying  Christian 
agencies  in  the  machinery  of  what  is  not  very  hap- 
pily termed  the  institutional  church.  We  can- 
not afford  to  lose  sight  of  the  class  on  whose  be- 
half Sunday-schools  were  first  started  in  the  lanes 
of  Gloucester  and  the  hamlets  of  Cheddar,  and 
for  whom  Charles  Dickens,  half  a  century  after, 
so  well  pleaded  when  he  raised  his  voice  in  favor 
of  what  he  was  the  first  to  call  "  Ragged  Schools." 
The  Sunday-school  must  not  be  allowed  to  narrow 
down  to  a  club  for  the  children  of  the  congrega- 
tion ;  it  must  hold  to  its  original  democratic  char- 
acter, and  welcome  alike  the  rich  and  the  poor,  in 
the  conviction  that  the  Lord  is  the  Maker  of  them 
all. 

Then  the  Sunday-school  must  keep  abreast  of 
the  times  by  falling  in  with  the  prevailing  senti- 
ment of  the  century.  There  is  a  growing  feeling, 
the  civilized  world  over,  that  we  are  part  of  a 
great  human  brotherhood,  that  we  are  our  brother's 
keeper.  Philanthropy,  unless  we  misread  the  signs 
of  the  times,  is  to  be  one  of  the  distinctive  fea- 
tures of  this  new  age.  To  it  we  are  impelled  by 
the  crowded  city  life  in  which  the  majority  of  men 
and  women  pass  their  days,  as  well  as  by  the  in- 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    235 

creasing  acquaintance  with  the  conditions  of  this 
life,  for  which  we  are  indebted  to  our  newspapers 
and  periodical  literature.  It  was  a  journalist,  re- 
member, who  first  established  a  Sunday-school, 
and  no  ordained  Christian  pastor  ever  carried 
within  his  breast  a  more  sympathizing  heart  than 
did  he.  Robert  Raikes  was  full  of  love  for  the 
bodies  and  minds  and  souls  of  the  children  of 
Gloucester.  In  the  very  age  which  gave  us  mod- 
ern missions  he,  in  the  true  missionary  spirit,  gave 
us  Sunday-schools.  To  him,  first  of  all,  we  owe  it 
that,  as  Dr.  H.  Clay  Trumbull  says,  "  A  child  is  a 
great  deal  bigger  than  he  was  a  century  ago.  He 
has  grown  more  than  a  hundred  years  since  then. 
Conspicuous  among  the  features  of  progress  in 
this  century  is  the  recognition  of  the  child  in  his 
relative  importance  before  the  thinkers  and  doers 
of  the  Christian  church  and  of  the  outside  world." 
"  He  had  a  good  way  with  children,"  said  an  old 
woman  recalling  Robert  Raikes  ;  "  he  had  author- 
ity with  him,  and  yet  they  were  not  afraid."  It 
is  impossible  to  calculate  how  much  this  one  man 
increased  the  sum  of  human  happiness.  The  love 
for  the  masses  perishing  in  ignorance  in  England 
which  burned  in  the  bosom  of  Wesley,  and  for  the 
millions  dying  in  heathenism  in  India  which  glowed 
in  the  heart  of  Carey,  and  for  the  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  prisoners  mouldering  in  fetid 
dungeons  which  mastered  the  soul  of  John  How- 


236      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

ard,  the  true  philanthropy  which,  flow  in  what 
channels  it  may,  comes  first  of  all  from  God,  who 
is  its  source,  this  it  was  which  became  the  master 
passion  in  the  life  of  Robert  Raikes.  In  the  next 
century  it  found  its  most  illustrious  champion  in 
Lord  Shaftesbury,  but  he  was  only  one  of  a  band 
of  devoted  men  and  women  who  gave  themselves 
up  to  the  betterment  of  their  kind.  To-day  this 
philanthropy  is  not  only  pouring  out  its  wealth  as 
never  before,  but  better  yet,  it  is  following  in  the 
very  footsteps  of  Him  who,  not  satisfied  with 
sending  others,  himself  came  to  seek  and  to  save 
the  lost.  "The  world  for  Christ  in  this  century" 
is  the  watchword  of  the  new  philanthropy,  which 
means  also  "  Christ  for  the  world."  There  is  sig- 
nificance in  the  fact  that  the  work  of  the  leading 
evangelist  of  our  times,  as  his  course  of  useful- 
ness drew  to  its  close,  more  and  more  took  on  the 
form  of  work  for  the  young  life  of  his  country, 
first  building  and  endowing  for  it  schools,  and  later 
yet,  reaching  it  in  the  colleges  and  inspiring  it  to 
volunteer  for  missions  to  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth. 

The  Sunday-school  must,  still  further,  keep 
abreast  of  the  times  by  sympathizing  with  the  re- 
ligious thought  of  the  century.  It  does  not  im- 
ply that  there  has  been  any  radical  change  in 
theology  because  our  age  differs  from  that  which 
preceded   it  in  the  degree  of    emphasis  which  it 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    237 

lays  on  certain  truths.  What  Henry  Melvill  said 
of  the  Tree  of  Life  is  also  true  of  our  Chris- 
tian faith  :  "  You  cannot  come  out  of  season  to  it. 
You  may  bring  your  season  with  you,  and  the  tree 
takes  it,  and  bears  another  fruit."  Each  age  finds 
there  the  fruit  best  suited  to  your  needs.  Wisely 
says  the  Talmud  :  "  Do  not  confine  your  children 
to  your  own  learning,  for  they  were  born  in  another 
time."  "  Every  age  must  have  its  own  forms  of 
Christian  language  and  thought.  Our  children's 
children  will  not  use  the  exact  dialect  in  which 
we  speak  one  with  another  of  eternal  things. 
Theological  systems  are  the  construction  of  the 
age,  and  every  generation  may  be  left  to  build  its 
own." x  Each  century  is  tolerably  sure  to  give 
prominence  to  those  aspects  of  eternal  truths 
which  specially  meet  its  needs.  When  the  hosts 
of  the  enemy  are  still  on  the  horizon,  the  be- 
sieged garrison  is  on  the  ramparts,  but  when  they 
are  swarming  about  the  moat  and  drawbridge,  the 
battlements  will  not  need  to  be  manned  so  strongly 
as  the  foundations.  A  hundred  years  ago  the  dis- 
position was  to  emphasize  the  future  life  and  the 
need  of  salvation  now  for  the  sake  of  that ;  and 
to-day  the  disposition  is  to  emphasize  the  present 
life,  and  to  urge  men  to  "  a  new  and  larger  con- 
ception  of    what    the    salvation   of    a    soul    must 

1  "Christianity  and   the  Child"  ;  W.  Brock,  in  "The  Ancient 
Faith  in  Modern  Light,"  p.  350. 


238       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

mean."  The  Sunday-school  teacher  will  be  likely 
to  feel  the  influence  of  this  shifted  emphasis. 
And  so  the  present  life  of  the  scholar,  his  con- 
duct and  character,  will  become  not  less  momen- 
tous in  his  eyes  than  will  his  future  destiny.  He 
cannot  consent  to  separate  the  two.  His  experi- 
ence in  the  school  and  in  the  world  about  him 
bears  witness  that  whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that 
shall  he  also  reap.  The  minister,  also,  in  his  work 
in  the  Sunday-school,  will  do  the  same.  How  to 
seize,  retain,  and  mold  the  life  which  is  maturing 
in  his  school  and  congregation  is  one  of  the  most 
serious  problems  before  the  twentieth  century 
minister.  All  the  more  serious  is  it  because  the 
age  of  compulsion  in  which  Sunday-schools  were 
born  is  forever  past.  The  old  authority,  which 
counted  for  so  much  in  the  home  of  a  hundred 
years  ago,  in  the  Old  Country,  has  scarcely  a  par- 
allel among  us  to-day.  He  is  no  true  pastor  who 
does  not  give  himself  with  all  his  strength  to  re- 
taining the  young  people  in  his  congregation. 
"The  fact  remains  that  a  large  proportion  of  Sun- 
day-school children  graduate  themselves  from  its 
halls  and  into  life  wholly  separate  from  the  church 
at  least,  and  perhaps  set  apart  to  do  evil."1  It  is 
no  exceptional  case  which  is  described  in  the  fol- 
lowing words  :    "In  a  certain  city,  the  number  of 

1Demarest,  p.  135 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    239 

men  in  the  churches  and  congregations  was  much 
smaller  than  that  of  women.  But  in  the  Sunday- 
schools  of  those  same  churches,  the  number  of 
boys  was  slightly  in  excess  of  the  number  of  girls. 
In  other  words,  as  many  boys  are  brought  under 
church  influence  as  girls  ;  but  about  the  age  of 
twelve  or  thirteen,  while  the  girls  remain,  the 
boys,  many  of  them,  drop  out  of  the  religious 
circle.  It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  point  at 
which  especial  religious  effort  is  to  be  directed  is 
the  point  at  which  the  boy  becomes  the  young 
man.  That  period  passed  and  the  boy,  now  the 
young  man,  still  kept  in  the  congregation,  he  may 
be  expected  to  remain  in  it  all  his  life."  Our 
most  faithful  and  able  ministers  are  so  impressed 
with  the  momentous  issues  of  this  present  life 
that  they  are  striving  most  earnestly  to  hold  the 
young  men  and  women  in  their  congregations 
through  this  critical  period.  Robert  Raikes,  after 
trying  in  vain  to  reform  criminals  in  the  jail  for 
thirty  years,  resolved  that  prevention  must  be  not 
only  better  but  also  likelier  than  cure.  So  he 
began  at  the  other  end,  and  Sunday-schools  were 
the  result.  I  have  spoken  at  sufficient  length  of 
the  various  ways  in  which  ministers  of  Christ  may 
try  to  gain  and  keep  their  young  people,  but  I 
should  counsel  that  they  be  quick  to  notice  any 
successful  effort  in  the  direction  of  forming  closer 
union  between  the  session  of  the  school  and  the 


24O       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

session  of  public  worship.1  That  by  the  working 
of  our  present  arrangement  of  services  these  two 
are  not  only  not  mutually  helpful,  but  often  very 
much  the  reverse,  is  to  my  mind  an  argument  for 
a  more  excellent  way,  if  only  one  can  be  devised. 
Finally,  the  Sunday-school  must  keep  abreast 
of  the  times  by  availing  itself  of  the  progressive 
intelligence  of  the  century.  In  nothing  is  this 
intelligence  showing  itself  more  than  in  the  matter 
of  education.  The  little  red  schoolhouse  is  a 
memory  now,  not  a  model.  The  public  schools  of 
America  and  the  board  schools  of  Great  Britain 
are  planned  with  increasing  care,  and  serve  their 
highest  ends  now  as  never  before.  Shall  the 
building  in  which  the  Sunday-school  meets  still 
continue  to  recall  the  old  familiar  model  of  that 
ancient  makeshift  at  the  country  cross  roads  ? 
The  time  may  come  when  if  the  whole  school 
needs  to  meet  for  preliminary  exercises — generally 
needlessly  prolonged — the  main  audience  room  of 
the  church  will  be  used  rather  than  sacrifice  the 
space  in  the  schoolroom  proper,  which  should  be 
divided  so  that  classes  can  be  taught  without  any 
annoyance  to  one  by  another.  Each  class  should 
have  its  own  room.  The  wonder  is  not  that  the 
work  has  been  poorly  done  under  the  present  sys- 
tem, but  that  it  has  been  done  at  all. 

1  Demarest,  p.  142. 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    24I 

And  as  the  plan  of  the  building  is  to  be  fol- 
lowed, as  far  as  may  be,  from  that  of  the  modern 
public  school,  so  as  in  the  public  school  where 
no  inferior  influences  are  suffered  to  interfere 
with  the  rights  of  the  people,  the  choice  of  offi- 
cers is  to  be  of  the  best.  The  president  of  Chi- 
cago University  is  superintendent  of  the  Sunday- 
school  of  the  church  of  which  he  is  a  member ; 
one  of  the  ablest  Greek  scholars  in  the  country 
is  director  of  the  work  of  instruction ;  a  colleague 
of  his,  as  able  as  himself,  is  director  of  the  be- 
nevolent work ;  while  the  spiritual  work  of  the 
school  is  under  the  direction  of  the  minister  of 
the  church.  In  this  school,  which  has  done  fine 
work  in  education,  while  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
pupils  has  been  roused  and  quickened  by  con- 
stant conversions,  "  there  are  three  main  divi- 
sions :  the  elementary,  embracing  the  kindergar- 
ten and  the  first  four  grades ;  the  secondary, 
embracing  eight  grades  ;  and  the  adult  division. 
Each  division  has  a  principal,  secretary,  and  one 
or  more  superintendents  in  charge  of  instruction 
in  groups  of  classes,  each  of  which,  of  course, 
has  its  regular  teacher."  These  better  arrange- 
ments will  claim,  where  they  do  not  create,  new 
methods  of  teaching.  There  is  no  higher  honor 
than  to  be  found  competent  as  a  teacher  in  a  Sun- 
day-school. It  was  of  teachers  that  John  Wesley 
was  thinking  when  he  wrote  to  his  brother  Charles, 

Q 


242       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

a  few  months  before  his  death  :  "  Nothing  can 
prevent  the  increase  of  the  blessed  work  but  the 
neglect  of  the  instruments  ;  therefore  be  sure  to 
watch  over  these  with  all  care,  that  they  may  not 
grow  weary  in  well-doing."  It  was  one  of  the 
greatest  schoolmasters  of  our  time,  Thring  of  Up- 
pingham, who  traced  to  his  early  experience  in 
teaching,  when  he  was  a  curate  in  the  very  country 
where,  a  century  before,  Sunday-schools  were 
born,  what  skill  he  afterward  used  as  headmaster 
of  one  of  the  most  famous  of  English  schools  : 

Never  shall  I  forget  those  schools  in  the  suburbs  of  Glou- 
cester, and  their  little  classroom,  with  its  solemn  problem 
(no  more  difficult  one  in  the  world),  how  on  earth  the  Cam- 
bridge honor  man,  with  his  success  and  his  brain  work,  was 
to  get  at  the  minds  of  those  little  laborers'  sons,  with  their 
unfurnished  heads  and  no  time  to  give.  They  had  to  be 
got  at,  or  I  had  failed  .  .  .  There  I  learned  the  great  secret 
of  St.  Augustine' s  golden  key,  which,  though  it  be  of  gold, 
is  useless  unless  it  fits  the  wards  of  the  lock.  And  I  found 
the  wards  I  had  to  fit,  the  wards  of  my  lock  which  had  to 
be  opened,  the  minds  of  those  little  street  boys  very  queer 
and  tortuous  affairs  ;  and  I  had  to  set  about  cutting  and 
chipping  myself  in  every  way  to  make  myself  into  the 
wooden  key  which  should  have  the  one  merit  of  a  key, 
however  common  it  might  look,  the  merit  of  fitting  the  lock 
and  unlocking  the  minds  and  opening  the  shut  chambers  of 
the  heart. 

The  church  is  slowly  waking  up  to  her  respon- 
sibility in  the  matter  of  training  teachers  to  teach. 
The  Sunday-school  Commission  of  the  Protestant 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    243 

Episcopal  Diocese,  of  New  York,  has  taken  the 
lead  in  doing  this ; 1  but  the  day  cannot  be  far  dis- 
tant in  which  the  best  principles  and  methods  of 
teaching  will  be  made  the  subject  of  careful  and 
intelligent  drill  in  public  classes  for  all  teachers 
who  care  to  attend.  Summer  schools  for  this 
purpose,  and  evening  classes  through  the  winter, 
will  be  much  more  general  than  they  have  been. 

From  the  public  school  also  we  may  learn  to 
have  fewer  classes,  larger  in  the  number  of  schol- 
ars enrolled  in  each,  and  better  taught.  The  num- 
ber of  scholars  in  the  public  schools,  according  to 
the  United  States  Census,  1 890-1 891,  was  eight 
million  three  hundred  and  twenty-nine  thousand 
two  hundred  and  thirty-four,  as  against  eight  mil- 
lion six  hundred  and  forty-nine  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-one  in  Sunday-schools.  But  in 
the  case  of  the  public  schools  three  hundred  and 
sixty-eight  thousand  seven  hundred  and  ninety- 
one  teachers  sufficed,  whereas,  with  only  a  slightly 
larger  number  of  scholars,  the  Sunday-schools 
numbered  one  million  one  hundred  and  fifty-one 
thousand  three  hundred  and  forty  teachers.2  The 
city  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  has  more  large  Sunday- 
school  classes  than  any  other  city  in  the  United 
States.  There  are  forty  classes  with  a  member- 
ship which  in  1900  ran  up  to  between  three  thou- 

1   "Outlook,"  Dec.  15,  1900. 
2Gulick,  "The  Growth  of  the  Kingdom,"  p.  152. 


244      THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

sand  and  four  thousand  men,  and  the  explanation 
of  this  is  that  some  of  the  most  vigorous  and  com- 
petent young  men  in  the  city  have  devoted  them- 
selves to  this  work.  One  of  these,  the  Hon. 
Walter  Hubbell,  alluding  to  the  rapid  growth  of 
his  class  during  the  nine  years  that  he  has  taught 
it,  says  : 

We  now  number  two  hundred  and  fifty,  and  this  year,  so 
far,  we  have  had  an  average  attendance  of  something  like 
one  hundred  and  fifty.  I  hardly  know  what  to  say  in  an- 
swer to  the  question  about  the  methods  employed  in  teach- 
ing. We  use  the  International  series  of  lessons,  and  I  en- 
deavor to  keep  closely  to  the  text.  I  never  discuss  politics 
or  the  ordinary  international,  national,  or  social  questions 
of  the  day.  The  class  gives  entertainments  during  the 
winter.  The  treasurer's  report  shows  that  it  costs  about 
one  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  run  the  class,  including  the 
cost  of  the  banquet  and  what  we  pay  the  male  quartette, 
which  is  unquestionably  the  best  one  in  the  city.  A  large 
number  of  the  men  seem  to  be  very  much  interested  in  the 
class,  and  do  a  great  deal  of  work,  and  to  this  fact  I  at- 
tribute the  success  of  the  class.  We  have  various  commit- 
tees who  look  after  the  membership,  who  call  on  the  sick, 
who  attempt  to  find  employment  for  the  unemployed,  who 
take  care  of  the  social  functions,  and  who  look  out  for  the 
program  of  the  general  exercises  on  Sunday. 

That  the  character  of  the  teaching  will  rise 
with  the  growing  intelligence  of  the  teachers, 
goes  without  saying.  The  days  of  the  uniform 
lesson  are,  let  us  hope,  numbered.  Lessons  must  be 
graded  to  the  capacity  of  the  scholars.    The  present 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    245 

prospect  is  for  three  courses  instead  of  one,  fol- 
lowing the  classification  of  the  school.  There 
may  be  a  danger  that  in  the  revulsion  from  the 
old  hortatory  methods  of  teaching  we  may  go  to 
an  opposite  extreme  and  become  too  scholastic. 
It  was  against  this  that  so  broad-minded  and  ac- 
curate a  scholar  as  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus  found  it 
necessary  to  protest :  "  The  so-called  inductive 
method  of  study  will  answer  for  college  students 
and  a  few  Bible  classes,  but  most  pupils  and  most 
teachers  will  never  make  anything  of  it."  And 
certainly  the  minute  study  of  the  words  of  Scrip- 
ture, the  finding  of  concealed  or  unobserved 
truths  by  the  close  scrutiny  of  tenses  and  cases 
which  perplexed  Phillips  Brooks'  mother  in  the 
preaching  of  the  new  school  of  evangelicals  of 
her  day,  will  perplex  much  more  than  it  will  profit 
the  ordinary  scholar  in  a  Sunday-school  class.  In 
the  Sunday-school  we  deal  not  with  processes  so 
much  as  with  results.  The  teacher's  main  aim 
should  be  moral  and  spiritual  rather  than  intel- 
lectual. Not  that  any  one  of  these  should  be 
rigidly  separated  from  the  others.  No  such  dis- 
tinction exists  in  fact.  Faith  and  practice  are 
complementary,  the  two  sides  of  the  same  shield, 
and  the  reason  is  never  ignored  in  the  arguments 
and  appeals  of  the  Christian  religion.  The  text- 
book in  the  Sunday-school  is  the  Bible,  and  "  the 
ultimate  aim  of  the  teaching  is  the  knowledge  of 


246       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

Christ,  Christian  experience,  personal  salvation."  l 
The  school  stands  or  falls,  not  by  the  completeness 
of  its  apparatus,  its  intellectual  ability,  the  per- 
fection of  its  organization,  the  popularity  of  its 
teachers,  the  social  position  of  its  scholars  ;  no,  but 
by  its  yielding  results  which  would  have  satisfied 
Jesus  himself  ;  by  the  measure  in  which  it  responds 
to  his  command,  "Suffer  little  children  to  come 
unto  me,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
It  was  this  distinctly  religious  purpose  in  the  school 
system  of  the  Hebrews  which  constituted  its 
strength,  giving  so  deep  a  meaning  to  the  saying 
of  one  of  the  rabbis  :  "The  Almighty  prefers  the 
breath  of  children  at  school  to  the  smoke  rising 
from  the  temple's  altars."  This  it  is  also  which  has 
made  the  catechism  so  important  an  element  in 
the  national  life  of  Scotland,  of  Germany,  of  New 
England,  and  of  many  other  lands.  The  chief 
end  of  the  catechism  was  not  reached  until  the 
soul  was  won  for  God.  And  just  here  it  is  that 
the  main  work  of  the  minister  needs  to  be  done. 
He  must  sow  with  eternity  in  view.  I  have  just 
said  that  the  text-book  in  the  school  has  to  be  the 
Bible.  By  this  I  mean  the  Bible,  and  not  selec- 
tions from  it  or'  notes  upon  it.  The  demand  for 
cheaper  Bibles  with  which  in  its  early  years  the 
Sunday-school  Union  of  England  and  Wales  be- 

Demarest,  "Presbyterian  Review,"  1901,  p.  130. 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    247 

sieged  the  Bible  Society,  is  only  to  be  understood 
when  we  remember  that  a  Bible  was  supposed  to 
be  necessary  to  each  scholar.  In  England  this 
was  certainly  the  rule  through  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  When  by  and  by  the  lesson- 
leaf  was  introduced  it  was  considered  a  sign  of 
an  ill-prepared  teacher  that  he  brought  it  with  him 
into  the  class.  We  have  fallen  on  other  times  in 
this  respect,  and  the  very  perfection  and  beauty 
of  our  Sunday-school  notes,  issuing  from  many 
publishing  houses  and  creating  large  vested  pecu- 
niary interests,  has  tended  to  let  the  comment 
usurp  the  place  of  the  book  itself.  A  writer  al- 
ready quoted,  in  pleading  for  reconstruction  in  the 
Sunday-school,  does  not  put  the  wound  thus  in- 
flicted on  the  Bible  in  the  house  of  its  friends  too 
strongly  when  he  says  : l 

The  use  of  lesson  leaves  very  generally  so  sets  the  Bible 
itself  in  the  background  as  seriously  to  prevent  familiarity 
with  it  as  a  whole,  with  the  reference  of  its  different  parts 
to  one  another,  and  with  the  immediate  setting  and  signifi- 
cance of  the  passage  under  study.  Not  only  is  the  Bible 
itself  thus  too  little  in  practical  use,  but  the  tearing  of  a 
few  verses  from  it  inevitably  forbids  the  mind's  emphasis 
and  remembrance  of  them  in  scriptural  oneness.  It  would 
be  so  in  the  study  of  any  text-book. 

The  Bible  must  be  restored  to  its  place  in  the 
school,  and  it  must  be  given  a  chance  to  be  heard. 

1  Demarest,  p.  1901. 


248       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

The  charge  is  brought  against  the  service  of  pub- 
lic worship  in  many  churches  that  it  has  ceased  to 
be  scriptural  in  thought  and  expression.  This  is 
much  to  be  regretted.  The  question  has  lately 
been  raised  whether  to-day  the  Bible  is  as  gener- 
ally familiar  to  us  as  it  was  to  the  English  people 
in  the  days  of  Shakespeare.  The  vast  number  of 
references  in  his  plays,  direct  or  indirect,  to  its 
words  and  characters  and  incidents  proves  that 
the  great  body  of  those  who  saw  them  performed 
caught  at  once  the  allusions  to  the  Bible  in  which 
they  abound.  The  study  of  the  Bible  itself,  the 
habit  of  committing  its  great  passages  to  memory, 
the  practice  of  comparing  scripture  with  scripture 
by  a  ready  use  of  parallel  verses,  all  this  needs  to 
be  revived,  and  the  Sunday-school  is  one  place 
where  it  can  be  done.  Dr.  John  Clifford,  of  Lon- 
don, sounds  a  note  which,  without  creating  a  panic, 
should  certainly  put  us  on  our  guard  when  he 
says  : l 

We  must  get  our  young  people  to  understand  the  incal- 
culable value  of  the  Bible  to  the  religious  life  and  general 
well-being  of  the  nation,  to  its  order  and  progress,  to  its 
liberty  aud  greatness.  The  Bible  has  made  us.  Our  Refor- 
mation sprang  out  of  that  book.  It  was  the  Bible  preached 
by  Wycliffe  and  his  poor  priests  which  inspired  that  re- 
volt against  papacy  which  issued  at  length  in  our  departure 
from  Rome  and  in  the  ascent  of  the  British  people  to  free- 

1  "  Sacerdotalism  and  Sunday-schools,"  p.  14. 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    249 

dom  of  conscience  and   to  sovereignty  in  the  life  of  the 
world. 

What  is  true  of  England  is  certainly  true  of 
America  also.  The  discovery  of  childhood,  it  has 
been  affirmed,  was  the  greatest  discovery  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  This  is  only  a  rhetorical  way 
of  putting  the  truth  which  Dr.  H.  Clay  Trumbull 
sets  before  us  more  soberly  when  he  says  : 

Jesus  Christ  not  only  gave  children  a  place  in  his  king- 
dom, he  gave  them  the  chief  place.  He  did  not  say  that 
if  a  child  grew  up  to  manhood,  having  kept  on  improving, 
he  might  come  to  understand  God' s  truth  ;  he  did  say  that 
the  only  way  in  which  a  mature  man  could  understand  this 
truth  was  in  getting  back  to  his  child  way  of  thinking. 
That  this  was  not  a  mere  figure  of  speech  is  shown  by  his 
having  a  real  flesh  and  blood  child  before  him  when  he 
said  it.  This  has  been  a  hard  saying  for  apostles  and  theo- 
logians and  preachers  generally  to  realize  the  truth  of ;  but 
they  have  been  making  a  good  start  the  past  century.  There 
is  hope  of  them — the  most  childlike. 

Up  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  many  Chris- 
tian ministers  really  had  the  idea  that  the  chief  business 
of  the  church,  by  the  command  of  the  Master,  is  to  preach 
to  grown-up  persons,  instead  of  to  teach  pupils  in  the 
church  school,  and  they  worked  along  in  the  line  of  that 
erroneous  idea.  Even  if,  at  that  time,  ministers  occasion- 
ally tried  preaching  to  children,  they  usually  failed  to  come 
up  to  a  child's  apprehension.  Teaching  children  by  proper 
modes  of  teaching  was  hardly  attempted  on  any  exten- 
sive scale. 

No  sweeping  arraignment  of  the  Sunday-school 


25O       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

can  be  just.  To  it,  in  the  main,  we  owe  it  that 
childhood  has  come  to  its  own  ;  that  the  young 
life  of  the  community  has  been  nurtured  and 
trained  heavenward  ;  that  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Associations  have  sprung  into  existence  in 
every  civilized  land  ;  and  that  in  this  country  alone 
half  a  million  young  men  study  the  Bible  in  its 
classes  every  year ;  that  the  Christian  Endeavor 
Societies  belt  the  world  ;  that  the  life  of  the  home, 
the  family,  the  community  has  been  lifted  heaven- 
ward. This  unpaid  enterprise  can  be  placed  side 
by  side  with  any  system  of  secular  schools,  and 
not  fear  by  the  comparison.  To-day  it  is  the  most 
conspicuous  triumph  of  the  voluntary  system  in 
the  service  of  Christ  and  the  church.  For  this 
reason,  and  because  what  is  good  should  always 
aim  to  be  better,  the  Sunday-school  ought  with 
the  new  century  to  go  up  higher.  If  it  is  to  keep 
in  touch  with  the  era  of  thought  and  action  on 
which  we  have  now  entered,  it  must  do  so.  No 
words  of  mine  can  impress  too  strongly  on  the 
minds  of  my  readers,  lay  and  ministerial,  the 
grandeur  and  the  solemnity  of  the  obligation 
under  which  we  live  as  servants  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  the  children  of  our  church.  The  Talmud  says : 
"  Jerusalem  was  destroyed  because  the  instruction 
of  the  young  was  neglected."  A  holier  temple 
than  that  which  fell  before  the  torch  of  Titus  is 
the  shrine  which  we  are  to  guard.    The  late  Bishop 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    25  I 

Creighton,  not  thinking  how  near  he  was  to  the 
close  of  his  career,  sang  on  the  threshold  of  the 
year  in  which  he  died : 

Oh  !  earlier  shall  the  roses  blow, 
In  after  years,  those  happier  years  ; 

And  children  weep,  when  we  lie  low, 
Far  fewer  tears,  far  softer  tears. 

Oh  !  true  shall  boyish  laughter  ring, 
Like  tinkling  chimes  in  happier  times  ; 

And  merrier  shall  the  maidens  sing, 
And  I  not  there,  and  I  not  there. 

The  children's  future  became  the  thought  of 
all  others  most  insistent  in  his  mind.  The  greatest 
contribution  to  the  unborn  years  that  a  Christian 
minister  can  make  he  considered  to  be  this,  to  live 
for  the  children  who  should  so  soon  occupy  our 
place.  Our  best  and  strongest  thoughts  and  words 
fall  into  the  hearts  of  the  children  and  young 
people  who  gather  about  us  ;  and  because  the  boy 
is  very  weak  who  dares  entirely  outgrow  his  boy- 
hood when  he  comes  to  be  a  man,  there  they 
remain,  growing  with  his  growth,  strengthening 
with  his  strength,  safeguards,  by  God's  blessing, 
against  evil,  sources  of  inspiration,  fountains  of 
water  springing  up  into  everlasting  life,  like  "  the 
hymns  of  dear  old  Doctor  Watts,"  of  which  in  his 
old  age  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  wrote :  "  They 
thrilled  me  when  a  babe,  and  will  mingle,  I  doubt 
not,  with  my  last  wandering  thoughts." 


252       THE    MINISTRY    OF    THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

In  bringing  this  discussion  to  a  close,  I  desire 
to  do  so  on  a  note  as  broad  as  the  theme  itself, 
when  looked  at  in  all  its  aspects,  warrants.  We 
have  seen  that  the  roots  of  the  Sunday-school  lie 
far  back  in  the  early  years  of  the  human  family. 
The  work  of  Robert  Raikes  and  his  comrades  was 
a  revival  rather  than  a  creation.  From  the  tent 
of  Abraham  beneath  the  oak  at  Mam  re ;  from  the 
divine  recognition,  earlier  yet,  of  the  family  as  the 
center  of  all  civil  and  religious  life,  sprang  the 
system  of  Christian  nurture  in  which  the  Sunday- 
school  is  only  one  factor.  Never  is  this  thought 
of  the  divine  sanction  for  the  family  relationship 
absent  from  the  heart  of  the  patriarch,  from  the 
song  of  the  psalmist,  from  the  promise  of  the  seer, 
or  from  the  prayer  of  the  patriot.  Listen  to  it  as 
it  welds  together  the  training  of  the  family  with 
the  prosperity  of  the  nation  i1  "That  our  sons  may 
be  as  plants  grown  up  in  their  youth  ;  that  our 
daughters  may  be  as  cornerstones,  polished  after 
the  similitude  of  a  palace  :  that  our  garners  may 
be  full,  affording  all  manner  of  store  ;  that  there  be 
no  complaining  in  our  streets.  Happy  is  that 
people,  that  is  in  such  a  case :  yea,  happy  is  that 
people,  whose  God  is  the  Lord."  The  Hebrew 
theocracy  in  its  prime  insisted  on  the  religious 
training  of   the  young  people,  both  at  home  and 

1  Ps.  144  :  12. 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    253 

in  the  school,  and  even  when  Jerusalem  fell,  tradi- 
tion has  preserved  for  us  the  number  of  schools 
in  the  sacred  city  as  four  hundred  and  eighty.1 
With  more  probability  the  most  profound  of  Jew- 
ish medieval  scholars  traces  to  the  neglect  of  the 
education  of  the  children  the  decline  and  over- 
throw of  the  theocracy  itself.  The  lesson  which 
the  reformers  of  the  eighteenth  century  spelled 
out  from  the  slums  of  English  cities  and  the  shame 
of  English  villages,  is  a  lesson  to  which  every  ad- 
vance in  national  education  has  only  added  new 
emphasis.  I  mean  that  the  religious  training  of 
the  children,  whether  under  the  monarchy  or  the 
republic,  is  no  business  of  the  State,  but  must  be 
undertaken  by  the  church  of  Christ.  For  this 
training  each  minister  is,  within  the  sphere  of  his 
own  influence,  responsible.  It  is  not  the  will  of 
his  Father  in  heaven  that  one  of  these  little  ones 
should  perish,  that  one  should  grow  up  without 
the  knowledge  of  his  love  and  care.  The  same 
pity  which  stirred  in  the  manly  heart  of  Robert 
Raikes  and  in  the  gentle  bosom  of  Hannah  More 
should  stir  within  the  soul  of  the  Christian  min- 
ister.2 The  Sunday-school  has  ceased  to  be  the 
property  of  any  one  class,  and  nov/  belongs,  as 
does  the  public  school,  to  every  family  in  the  com- 
munity.    The    note    of    the    true    democracy    is 

1  Edersheim,  "Sketches,"  p.  135. 
2  Dale's  "  Life,"  p.  235.     P.  Brooks'  "Addresses,"  p.  503. 


2  54       THE    MINISTRY    OF   THE   SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

sounded  here  as  it  ought  to  be.  "  The  rich  and 
the  poor  meet  together,  and  the  Lord  is  the  maker 
of  them  all."1 

It  has  been  asserted  that  the  time  in  which  we 
live  is  specially  the  age  of  the  young ;  and  Emer- 
son quotes  a  witty  physician  who,  remembering 
the  hardships  of  his  own  youth,  said : 2  "It  is  a 
misfortune  to  have  been  born  when  children  were 
nothing  and  to  live  till  men  were  nothing."  And  yet 
what  the  men  shall  be  ten  or  fifteen  years  hence 
depends  on  what  the  children  are  now.  And  the 
children  and  the  young  people  will  be  very  largely 
what  we  make  them.  Addressing  myself  espe- 
cially to  the  rising  ministry,  I  would  say :  Believe 
me,  brethren,  standing  on  the  threshold  of  your 
Christian  ministry,  you  can  afford  to  neglect  almost 
anything  sooner  than  the  families  of  your  congre- 
gation and  the  classes  in  your  school.  Beside  the 
chair  of  the  aged  or  the  bed  of  the  dying  you  will 
touch  the  springs  of  memory,  and  there  is  a  wealth 
of  experience  to  be  gained  in  such  ministries  ;  but 
when  you  address  yourself  to  this  great  task  of 
Christian  nurture,  you  are  surrounded  by  the 
pleasures  of  hope.  You  "  speak  to  the  bright 
daylight  creatures  of  trust,"  you  face  and  influence 
a  future  of  untold  possibilities,  you  lay  a  molding 
hand  on  the  slumbering  forces  of  the  new  century 

1  Prov.  22  :  2.  2  Emerson's  "Lectures,"  p.  307. 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  TWENTIETH  CENTURY    255 

the  like  of  which  this  world  has  never  seen  be- 
fore. 

Bliss  is  it  in  this  dawn  to  be  alive, 

But  to  be  young  is  very  heaven. 

To  yourselves  it  will  be  a  welcome  relief,  turn- 
ing from  the  mingled  experiences  of  the  pastorate, 
from  the  man  old  and  hardened  in  sin,  from  the 
man  who  bears 

The  emptiness  of  ages  in  his  face, 

And  on  his  back  the  burden  of  the  world, 

from  these  and  so  many  others  who  sadden  or 
shadow  your  heart,  to  pass  into  the  springtime  of 
hope  and  enthusiasm  as  you  labor  with  the  young 
people  in  your  congregation. 

I  offer  congratulations  on  the  prospect  of  this 
ministry  to  the  home  circle  and  the  Sunday-school. 
About  us  as  about  the  Master  may  the  children 
gather  in  instinctive  love  ;  to  us  as  to  him  may 
the  young  man  hasten  to  learn  how  to  inherit  eter- 
nal life ;  may  we,  as  was  the  Lord  himself,  be 
encircled  by  a  band  of  ardent  and  devoted  souls 
eager  for  work  in  the  kingdom  ;  and  when  the  last 
account  shall  be  made,  may  it  be  ours  to  rise  with 
many  a  star  in  the  crown  of  our  rejoicing  and  to 
say,  "  Behold,  here  am  I  and  the  children  whom 
the  Lord  hath  given  me." 


GENERAL  INDEX 


Alleine,  Joseph,  a  forerunner  of 
the  Sunday-school,  55. 

America,  Sunday-school  in,  69, 157. 

American  Baptist  Publication  So- 
ciety, its  growth,  90. 

American  Sunday  School  Union, 
its  origin,  70,  89. 

Arnold,  Thomas,  his  influence  on 
boys,  42. 

Authority,  of  Bible,  3. 

Bacon,  Francis  (Lord),  on  value 
of  catechism,  200. 

Baldwin  :  on  early  conversion,  39  ; 
his  custom  of  kissing  children 
after  service,  110. 

Baraca  Union,  207. 

Baptism,  infant.  108. 

Baxter,  Richard,  on  value  of  teach- 
ing, 45. 

Beecher,  H.  W. :  on  value  of  influ- 
ence, 112;  on  injudiciously  in- 
fluencing children,  126  ;  on  serv- 
ices unattractive  to  children, 
131,  134;  and  Doctor  Tyng,  141  ; 
on  Sunday-schools,  141,  160:  on 
teaching  children,  177  ;  on  influ- 
ence of  minister  on  children, 
184. 

Beecher,  Lyman,  on  religious  con- 
dition of  New  England  before 
founding  of  Sunday-schools,  226. 

Bell,  Andrew,  his  pupil-teacher 
system,  77. 

Bible:  and  the  child,  3-45;  as 
guide  to  minister,  3  ;  children 
in,  3  ;  a  book  of  precepts  as  well 
as  examples,  12 ;  lack  of  expo- 
sition of,   among  Puritans.   34  ; 


in  the  Sunday-school,  95,  177, 
216;  its  purpose,  206.  (See  New 
Testament;  Old  Testament.) 

Bible-class,  for  young  men,  204. 

Bible-schools:  among  Jews,  14, 
252 ;  their  increase  during  the 
Exile,  15.    (See  Sunday-school.) 

Bonar.  Dr.  A.  A.,  his  experience 
in  addressing  children,  144. 

Books:  for  children,  118,  172.  (See 
New  England  Primer.) 

Borromeo,  Cardinal,  his  Sunday- 
schools,  54. 

British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
its  origin,  64. 

British  and  Foreign  School  So- 
ciety, its  origin,  78. 

Broadus.  Dr.  J.  A.,  against  induc- 
tive method  of  teaching,  245. 

Brock,  W.,  on  change  of  religious 
thought,  237. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  on  value  of  help- 
ing children,  196. 

Browning,  Mrs.,  quoted,  112. 

Burns,  quoted,  6. 

Bushnell,  Horace:  on  family 
unity,  10  ;  on  Christian  nurture, 
42  ;  on  infant  baptism  108 ;  on 
teaching  children  empty  formu- 
las, 121 :  on  preaching  to  chil- 
dren, 139  ;  on  questions  of  young 
men,  206. 

Carey,  his  influence  on  awakening 
of  eighteenth  century,  52. 

Carroll,  Lewis,  on  children,  227. 

Carus-Wilson.  Mrs.,  on  God's  feel- 
ing for  children,  145. 

Catechism  :  in  medieval  times,  23  ; 

257 


258 


GENERAL    INDEX 


in  New  England,  29,  34,  35,  194, 
201 ;  its  connection  with  relig- 
ious life,  35,  5G ;  in  the  Reforma- 
tion, 56 ;  its  use  in  the  Sunday- 
school,  94,  200. 

Chalmers,  Thomas :  his  influence 
on  awakening  of  eighteenth 
century,  52;  quoted,  164;  his 
appreciation  of  the  Sunday- 
school,  217,  225. 

Channing :  on  having  faith  in 
children,  32 ;  on  teaching,  176  ; 
on  the  danger  of  Sunday-schools, 
181. 

Character  of  Sunday-school  teach- 
ers, 170.  214,  241. 

Charles,  T.,  his  work,  63. 

Children :  the  Bible  and,  3-45 ; 
necessity  of  training,  5 ;  Hebrew 
training  of  6-16,  107,  111,  115, 190, 
198  ;  home  training  of,  6,  43, 107  ; 
in  New  Testament,  16-22;  love 
of  Jesus  for,  17  :  medieval  train- 
ing of,  22,  131  :  Puritan  training 
of,  24-30;  emotional  life  of,  30, 
40:  not  naturally  corrupt,  31; 
conversion  of,  32,  33,  36,  118; 
nurture  of,  39 :  their  depravity 
in  eighteenth  century,  50;  rela- 
tion of  minister  to,  109-147 ; 
stages  in  development  of,  114  ; 
consecration  of,  115 ;  books  for, 
118, 172;  their  training  after  con- 
version, 122 ;  their  influence  on 
church  elections,  123  :  as  critics, 
124  ;  injudicious  organization  of, 
126 ;  should  be  brought  to  church 
early.  129  ;  unfitness  of  ordinary 
church  service  to,  131 ;  demand 
variety  in  church  service,  133; 
special  address  for,  135 :  service 
for,  136 ;  sermon  for,  138 ;  duty 
of  church  to  elevate,  171 ;  their 
love  of  knowledge,  177 ;  impor- 
tance of  reaching,  218. 

Church :  influence  of  Sunday- 
school  on,  21,  34,  35,  158,  159,  221, 
227  ;  hymns  for,  134  ;  should  sup- 


port Sunday-school,  161 ;  its  re- 
lation to  home,  191. 

Clarke,  D.,  on  value  of  catechism, 
194. 

Clifford,  Dr.  John,  on  study  of 
Bible,  248. 

Consecration,  of  children,  115. 

Conversion  :  of  children,  32,  33, 
36,  118 ;  inadequacy  of  Puritan 
conception  of,  33. 

Corruption,  natural,  of  children, 
31. 

Cox,  Dr.  Samuel,  his  sermons  for 
children,  147. 

Crafts,  W.  F.,  on  teaching  evangel- 
istic methods,  182. 

Creighton,  Bishop,  quoted,  251. 

Criticism,  of  children,  124. 

Cuyler,  Doctor,  on  importance  of 
reaching  young  men,  204. 

Dale,  R.  W.,  on  relation  of  church 
and  home,  191. 

Demarest.  W.  H.  S. :  on  Sunday- 
school  reform,  232  ;  on  retaining 
young  people,  238;  on  the  aim 
of  teaching,  245  ;  on  use  of  Bible 
in  Sunday-school,  247. 

Doddridge,  Philip :  on  teaching 
children,  29 ;  his  attitude  toward 
revivals,  49 ;  his  influence  on 
awakening  of  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 51. 

Dods,  Dr.  Marcus,  on  the  purpose 
of  the  Bible,  206. 

Drummond,  Henry :  on  religion 
of  boys,  120 ;  his  inquiry  con- 
cerning early  religious  impres- 
sions, 222. 

Duty  :  of  parent  to  child,  7, 43, 107  ; 
of  minister  to  Sunday-school 
(see  Minister). 

Edersheim :  on  the  essence  of 
Hebrew  religion,  13 ;  on  training 
of  Hebrew  children,  14.  15,  111, 
190:  on  parental  obligation  in 
Mosaic  law,  107 ;  use  of  Bible  in 
Jewish  schools,  178. 


GENERAL    INDEX 


259 


Education,  secular:  in  England 
in  nineteenth  century,  78 ;  its 
influence  on  Sunday-school,  79. 

Edwards,  Jonathan  :  on  child  con- 
version, 33 ;  his  influence  in 
awakening  of  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 51. 

Eighteenth  century :  Sunday- 
school  in,  49-73  ;  morality  of,  49  ; 
religious  awakening  in,  51. 

Elections,  church,  unduly  influ- 
enced by  children,  123. 

Eliot,  George,  quoted,  111. 

Ezra,  as  a  teacher,  43. 

Family:  history  rooted  in,  6;  re- 
ligious aspect  of,  6. 

Farrar,  Dean,  on  influence  of 
Raikes,  187. 

Frazer,  Prof.,  on  influence  of  min- 
ister on  young,  124. 

Germany,  Sunday-school  in,  109. 

Goldsmith,  his  picture  of  the  vil- 
lage pastor,  110. 

Goodell,  C.  L.,  an  ideal  Sunday- 
school  pastor,  213. 

Gordon,  A.  J.,  on  church  amuse- 
ments. 192. 

Granville,  as  an  example  of  eigh- 
teenth century  morality,  50. 

Green,  J.  R.,  on  the  awakening  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  52. 

Green,  S.  G. :  on  conducting  a 
preparation  class,  181 ;  on  the 
minister  in  the  Sunday-school, 
209;  on  emotional  excitement, 
217. 

Gulick  :  on  growth  of  British  Sun- 
day-schools, 91 ;  on  present  re- 
ligious condition  of  colleges,  93  ; 
on  size  of  Sunday-school  classes, 
243. 

Guthrie,  his  childlikeness,  113. 

Heber,  his  childlikeness,  146. 
Hebrews,  their  training  of   chil- 
dren, 6-16,  107,  111,  115,  190, 198. 


Hill,  Rowland,  his  Sunday-school, 
63. 

Hodder,  on  early  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 83. 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  on  Watts'  hymns, 
251. 

Home :  training  of  children  in, 
6,  43,  50,  107 ;  influence  of  Sun- 
day-school on,  191 ;  its  relation 
to  Sunday-school,  224.  (See  Fam- 
ily.) 

Horn-book,  93. 

Howe,  Julia  Ward,  her  answer  to 
Sumner,  9. 

Hubbell,  W.,  on  growth  of  his 
men's  Bible  class,  244. 

Hudson,  M.  A.,  on  the  Baraca 
Union,  207. 

Hymms :  of  Watts,  55,  61,  138,  251 ; 
of  church,  134  ;  for  Sunday- 
school,  137. 

Ireland,  Sunday-school  in,  71. 

Jehoshaphat,  his  system  of  bibli- 
cal instruction,  43. 

Jesus :  on  the  necessity  of  child- 
likeness, 6  ;  his  childhood,  16  ; 
his  love  for  children,  17-20;  a 
model  for  the  minister  in  his 
relation  to  children,  19;  his  in- 
fluence on  children,  147. 

Judson,  Edward :  on  child  con- 
version. 36  ;  his  definition  of 
Sunday-school,  152;  on  the  kin- 
dergarten, 169  ;  on  pastoral  work 
of  Sunday-school  teachers,  183. 

Kindergarten,  in  Sunday-school, 
169. 

Kirk,  E.  N.,  on  former  method  of 
training  children,  25. 

Lancaster,  Joseph,  his  pupil- 
teacher  system,  78. 

Larcom,  Lucy,  on  sermons  unin- 
telligible to  children,  134. 

Lessons,  uniform,  99. 

Letter-box  of  minister,  127. 


26o 


GENERAL    INDEX 


Library  of  Sunday-school,  118, 172. 
Lindsay,  T.,his  Sunday-school,  55. 
Longfellow,  quoted,  40. 
Luther,  on  influencing  children, 
218. 

Manning,  Cardinal,  on  influen- 
cing children,  218. 

Mather,  Cotton,  his  class  for  chil- 
dren, 118. 

Men,  young:  Bible  class  for,  204, 
244 ;  importance  of  reaching,  204  ; 
their  questions,  206;  their  Baraca 
Union,  207. 

Middle  Ages,  training  of  children 
in,  22,  131. 

Millet,  influence  of  early  training 
on,  41. 

Minister:  his  guide  the  Bible,  3 ; 
his  model,  19 :  his  function  in 
medieval  times,  22;  must  not 
think  children  corrupt,  31 ;  his 
view  of  child  conversion,  35  ;  his 
lasting  influence  on  children.  42; 
his  relation  to  his  young  people, 
109-147 ;  as  friend  of  children, 
109;  as  pastor  of  children,  115; 
his  visitation  of  the  young,  116  ; 
value  of  long  pastorate  to,  124; 
his  unconscious  influence  on 
children,  121 ;  should  keep  in 
close  touch  with  young  con- 
verts, 127,  223;  his  letter-box, 
127 ;  as  preacher  to  children, 
128,  134,  138;  his  public  prayer, 
133  ;  his  relation  to  the  Sunday- 
school,  153-184 ;  as  pastor  of  the 
Sunday-school,  159;  his  relation 
to  Sunday-school  officers,  163  ;  as 
adviser  to  teachers,  165 ;  must 
supervise  teachers.  167  ;  must  ex- 
ert an  intellectual"  influence  on 
teachers,  174 ;  his  normal  class, 
174;  his  preparation  clnss,  179; 
his  spiritual  influence  on  teach- 
ers, 181 ;  should  often  meet  offi- 
cers and  teachers,  181 ;  benefit 
of  Sunday-school  work  to,  183 ; 


in  the  Sunday-school,  187-228; 
his  moral  influence  in  the 
school,  190 ;  may  indirectly  pro- 
mote civic  purity,  192 ;  his  influ- 
ence on  community,  195  ;  should 
attend  Sunday-school,  198,  209; 
his  part  in  exercises  of  Sunday- 
school,  198 ;  should  teach  in 
Sunday-school,  203  ;  his  class  for 
young  men,  204,  advantages  of 
Sunday-school  teaching  to,  207; 
essentials  to  success  in  Sunday- 
school  work  of,  210;  must  work 
for  spiritual  welfare  of  Sunday- 
school,  214;  must  keep  promi- 
nent the  subject  of  religious 
decision,  215;  should  teach  can- 
didates for  church-membership, 
223 ;  a  unifying  influence  be- 
tween home  and  school,  224  ;  a 
unifying  influence  between 
church  and  school,  226;  must 
sympathize  with  change  of  relij 
ions  thought,  238;  lives  for  the 
future  for  caring  for  children 
251. 

More,  H.  ;  her  influence  on  awak 
ening  of  eighteenth  century, 
52;  and  Macaulay,  53;  her  life 
and  work,  61-68  ;  parochial  char 
acter  of  Sunday-school  of,  152. 

Morley,  J.,  on  Puritan  theocracy 
53. 

New  England  Primer :  its  influ 
ence,  26 ;  its  Puritan  character 
26-29  ;  its  view  of  sin,  27 ;  ele 
ment  of  fear  in  teachings  of,  27 

28  ;  lack  of  emotional  appeal  in 

29  ;  quoted,  26,  27,  28. 
Newton,   John,  his    influence  on 

awakening  of  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 51. 

Newton,  Richard,  on  preaching 
to  children,  140. 

Nineteenth  century,  Sunday- 
school  in,  77-104  ;  secular  educa- 
tion in  England  in,  73. 


GENERAL    INDEX 


26l 


Normal  class,  conducted  by  min- 
ister, 174. 

Nurture,  Christian  :  origin  of  term, 
39;  beginning  of,  40;  necessity 
of,  41.  (See  Children  ;  Sunday- 
school.) 

Officers  of  Sunday-school :  rela- 
tion of  minister  to,  163, 181 ;  need 
of  good,  241. 

Organization,  of  young  people, 
126. 

Owen,  John,  on  the  catechism, 
202. 

Parent :  his  duty  to  children,  7, 
43,  107  ;  is  always  a  teacher,  10  ; 
mistaken  ideas  of  obligation  of, 
31. 

Pascal,  ou  the  supremely  good 
book,  146. 

Pattison,  S.  R.,  on  the  religion  of 
children,  122. 

Paul:  on  children.  20,  21,  40;  his 
public  teaching,  21.  22. 

Phelps.  Austin  :  on  lack  of  expo- 
sition in  early  Sunday-schools, 
34  ;  on  character,  170. 

Philo,  on  Jewish  training  of  chil- 
dren, 14,  111. 

Prayer,  public,  of  minister,  133. 

Preparation  class,  conducted  by 
minister,  179. 

Puritan  training  of  children:  in- 
fluence of  medieval  teaching 
upon,  23  ;  its  dictatorial  nature, 
24  ;  its  sternness,  25-30;  its  influ- 
ence on  Sunday-school,  30. 

Puritans:  their  training  of  chil- 
dren (see  above)  ;  their  idea  of 
conversion,  33  ;  their  theocracy, 
53. 

Raikes,  Robert:  quoted,  15;  his 
influence  on  awakening  of  eigh- 
teenth century,  51,  54 ;  as  origi- 
nator of  Sunday-school,  56,  188, 
196  ;  his  life  and  work,  57-61 ;  on 
acquiescence  of  clergy  in  Sun- 


day-school movement,  155 ;  early 
appreciation  of,  156,  193;  his 
monument,  187;  his  handling 
of  children,  235. 

Reed,  Charles,  on  opposition  to 
early  Sunday-schools,  154. 

Reformation,  Protestant:  influ- 
ence of  medieval  teaching  re- 
garding children  upon,  23;  its 
Puritanism,  33  ;  its  appreciation 
of  the  catechism,  56. 

Religious  Tract  Society,  its  origin, 
63. 

Revivals,  their  evils  largely  due 
to  wrong  methods,  36;  connec- 
tion of  Sunday-school  with,  216. 

Richter,  Jean  Paul :  on  influence 
of  parents,  10;  on  the  beauty  of 
childhood,  170. 

Robertson,  Dr.,  on  application  of 
moral  in  story,  145. 

Sabbath  Evening  School  Society, 
its  origin,  70. 

Schauffler,  A.  F.,  on  training 
teachers,  179. 

Scotland,  Sunday-school  in,  70. 

Sermon:  should  attract  children, 
134  ;  for  children,  138  ;  instruct- 
ive element  in,  145. 

Services,  for  children,  136. 

Short,  Geo.,  on  character  of 
teacher,  214. 

Singing:  should  attract  children, 
134,137.     (See  Hymns.) 

Smith,  Adam,  on  value  of  Sunday- 
school,  71. 

Society,  American  Baptist  Publi- 
cation, its  growth,  80. 

Society,  British  and  Foreign  Bible, 
its  origin,  64. 

Society,  British  and  Foreign 
School,  its  origin,  78. 

Society  of  Christian  Endeavor: 
its  good  influence,  192;  its  rela- 
tion to  Sunday-school,  215. 

Society,  Religious  Tract,  its  origin, 
63. 


262 


GENERAL    INDEX 


Society,  Sabbath  Evening  School, 
its  origin,  70. 

Spurgeon :  on  child  conversion, 
39;  on  keeping  young  men  in 
Sunday-school,  205  ;  on  the  duty, 
of  the  minister  to  visit  his  Sun- 
day-school, 209. 

Stanley,  Dean :  human  element 
in  preaching  of.  143  ;  criticism 
of,  176. 

Stock,  Thomas,  his  Sunday-school 
work,  61,  62. 

Sumner,  Charles,  and  Julia  Ward 
Howe,  9. 

Sunday-school :  among  Hebrews, 
14, 252  ;  its  increase  during  exile, 
15 ;  evolution  of  modern,  15 ; 
during  apostolic  times,  21 ;  as 
the  nursery  of  the  church,  21, 
159,  221,  227  ;  in  medieval  times, 
22,  23 ;  opposition  to.  33,  70,  154, 
157,  226 ;  lack  of  exposition  in 
New  England,  34  ;  its  influence 
on  modern  church,  31.  35,  158  ;  its 
aim,  43.  245 ;  in  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 49-73  ;  its  inception.  54  ;  ori- 
gin of  modern,  57;  indifference 
toward  early,  62,  63 ;  immediate 
results  of  its  establishment  in 
eighteenth  century.  68-73 ;  its 
origin  in  America,  69,  157 ;  in 
Scotland,  70;  in  Ireland,  71; 
influence  of  early,  71;  its  part 
in  religious  awakening  of  eigh- 
teenth century,  72 :  change 
in  character  of,  73;  in  nine- 
teenth century,  77-104 ;  its  de- 
cline in  early  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 79 ;  its  recognition  by 
Church  of  England,  80:  effect 
of  decline  of  evangelical  party 
upon,  81 ;  influence  of  industrial 
growth  upon,  83:  beginning  of 
unpaid  teaching  in.  85;  presents 
in,  85,  86,  203:  its  revival  in 
Gloucester,  86;  bettor  organiza- 
tion of,  87 :  first  Convention  of 
workers  in,   89 ;    statistics    con- 


cerning, 91 ;  improvement  of 
teaching  in,  93,  168,  244;  cate- 
chism in,  94,  200;  Bible  in,  95, 
177,  246  ;  lesson  series  for,  99  ;  its 
influence  on  nineteenth  century, 
103  ;  its  origin  in  Germany,  109  : 
its  library,  118,  172 ;  defined,  151 ; 
of  earlier  times  compared  with 
that  of  to-day,  151,  196;  the 
modern,  153;  relation  of  minis- 
ter to,  153-184;  its  early  simplic- 
ity, 153 ;  continuity  of,  158 ; 
not  the  children's  church,  160; 
should  be  supported  by  the 
church,  161 ;  efficacy  better  than 
numbers  in,  169;  its  kindergar- 
ten, 169;  importance  of  charac- 
ter in  teachers  of,  170,  214,  241 ; 
its  wider  mission,  171 :  minister's 
relation  to,  teachers,  174 ;  prepa- 
ration for  teaching  in,  189,  242; 
its  great  danger,  181 ;  monthly 
meeting  of  teachers  of,  181 ;  the 
minister  in,  187-228;  three  im- 
pelling forces  of  early.  188 ;  its 
reforming  power,  190;  its  influ- 
ence on  the  home,  191 ;  its 
influence  on  civic  purity,  192; 
its  national  influence,  193  ;  pun- 
ishment in,  194;  young  men's 
Bible  class  of,  204  ;  as  a  trans- 
forming agency,  208 ;  essentials 
to  success  of  minister  in,  210; 
its  connection  with  revivals, 
216 ;  is  not  in  rivalry  with  the 
home,  224 ;  is  not  in  rivalry 
with  the  church,  226;  in  the 
twentieth  century,  231-255  ;  must 
keep  in  tcuch  with  the  times, 
232 ;  must  respond  to  demands 
upon  it,  233;  must  agree  with 
prevailing  sentiment,  234  ;  must 
sympathize  with  changing 
thought,  236;  must  avail  itself 
of  progressive  intelligence,  240; 
separate  classrooms  in.  210; 
need  of  good  officers  in,  241  ; 
new   methods   in,   241 ;    size   of 


GENERAL    INDEX 


•63 


classes  in,  213 :  its  world  influ- 
ence, 249. 

Sunday-school  Union  :  its  origin, 
63,  87;  its  doctrinal  limitation, 
87;  its  publications,  88. 

Sunday-school  Union,  American, 
its  origin,  70,  89. 

Talleyrand,  his  advice  against 
zeal",  49. 

Talmud:  on  home  training,  50; 
its  rules  regarding  training  of 
children,  190,  237  ;  on  national 
importance  of  training  chil- 
dren, 250. 

Teachers  in  Sunday-school : 
wages  paid  to  early,  84;  begin- 
ning of  unpaid,  85;  improve- 
ment of,  93, 168,  244  ;  importance 
of  character  in,  170,  214.  241 ;  re- 
lation of  minister  to,  174;  nor- 
mal class  for,  174  ;  three  things 
essential  to,  176;  preparation 
class  for,  179,  242;  monthly 
meeting  of,  181 ;  as  assistant  pas- 
tors, 182 ;  must  sympathize  with 
changing  thought,  238  ;  need  of 
good,  241. 

Tennyson,  quoted,  128,  129. 

Testament,  New,  on  training  chil- 
dren, 16-22. 

Testament,  Old,  on  training  chil- 
dren, 6-16. 

Thackeray,  his  appreciation  of 
singing  of  children,  137. 

Thring,  his  debt  to  Sunday-school 
teaching,  242. 

Timothy,  our  first  example  of 
Christian  nurture,  20. 

Training:  See  Children  ;  Teachers. 

Trotter,  Doctor,  on  English  Sun- 
day-schools in  middle  of  nine- 
teenth century,  97. 

Trumbull  :  on  Hebrew  training  of 
children,  14,  15,  19S  ;  on  Jesus  as 
the  model  teacher,  19  ;  on  apos- 
tolic teaching  of  children.  21, 
21 ;  on  child-conversion,  32  ;  on 


the  catechism,  35,  200;  on  re- 
ligious character  of  early  nine- 
teenth century,  79;  on  Sunday- 
schools  in  Germany,  109 ;  on 
good  texts  for  sermons  to  chil- 
dren, 142;  on  early  Sunday- 
schools,  153 ;  on  opposition  to 
early  Sunday-schools,  154 ;  on 
growth  of  Sunday-school  move- 
ment, 157;  on  indirect  influence 
of  Sunday-school,  195;  on  So- 
ciety of  Christian  Endeavor, 
215  ;  on  modern  growth  of  regard 
for  children,  235  ;  on  importance 
of  childlikeness,  249. 

Twentieth  century,  Sunday-school 
in,  231-255. 

Tyng,  Stephen  :  and  Beecher,  141 ; 
on  value  of  Sunday-school  work, 
141 ;  on  relation  of  minister  to 
Sunday-school,  210  ;  his  Sunday- 
school,  211. 

Visitation  of  children  by  minis- 
ter, 116. 

Waldenses,  use  of  Bible  by,  178. 

Walpole,  R..  his  maxim,  49. 

Watchwords  of  Sunday-school 
movement,  188. 

Watts,  Isaac,  his  hymns,  55,  61, 
138,  251. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  on  duty,  3. 

Wesley,  John :  his  influence  on 
awakening  of  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 51  ;  on  child  conversion, 
52;  on  talking  , with  children. 
117;  on  associating  with  chil- 
dren, 138;  his  sermon  for  chil- 
dren, 147  :  on  growth  and  value 
of  Sunday-schools,  188,  216;  on 
Sunday-school  teachers,  241. 

White,  Gilbert,  as  an  example  of 
morality  of  eighteenth  century, 
50. 

Whitefield,  his  influence  on  awak- 
ening of  eighteenth  century,  51. 

Wilberforce:     his    influence    on 


264 


GENERAL    JXDEX 


awakening  of  eighteenth   cen- 
tury, 52;  on  English  village  life 
before     founding     of     Sunday- 
school,  225. 
Wordsworth,  quoted,  113,  204,  255. 


Xavier,  on  influencing  children, 
218. 

Zinzendorf,  as  a  preacher  to  chil- 
dren, 138. 


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